The Body's Potential

My dad said he was going to try to come back yesterday from visiting my grandpa who was having the surgery done. And I told him, I said, I just don't feel right about that. And so I volunteered to teach this morning. Hopefully, my volunteering is not a warning of where we're going here.

Hopefully, this will be a short lesson because Really, the practical application of this needs to, again, like last week, happen after the service. And so hopefully this will be a short lesson. That being said, there's a number of slides, and it's seven verses.

So why are we studying Titus chapter 2, verses 2 through 8? Why are we studying this together? Because we can't do it alone. It must be done in a group. No matter how awesome the potential of Titus 2 2-8 is, if you're doing it by yourself, you're not doing it at all. This is an us-we passage, so let's keep that in mind. The Holy Spirit's fulfillment of God's logical imperatives here require that we work together, and we need to do this passage together, the application together, because we are a body. This, if you look at your handouts, you're going to see two charts. You're going to see this one and this one. The first one is an expanded chart that I created based on sort of a model or a vision I have. But guess what?

It's not what this passage covers, so we're not going to go over this one in detail. But this passage does cover this. We're going to talk about married older women, married older men, married younger women and married younger men. You'll notice on the expanded chart that I've got in there young girls and young boys, single young women, single young men, single older women and single older men as well. We will take a gander at some of those few other options, but the passage doesn't cover those specifically this morning.

All right, let's read the passage, Titus 2, 2 through 8. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance. Older women, likewise, are to be irreverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, Workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible. In all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us."

And that is a lot of material to cover, so hopefully we'll move through it quickly and efficiently. If you've got any questions, raise your hand. I know we're in the main service and typically that's not what happens. I don't teach that way, so we'll let that be slightly different. I'll try to have as many bad puns as I can, but still, if you've got things you're not sure about, let me know. Or we can talk after the service. First thing I want to point out here is don't just find yourself in this lesson.

It's very easy to categorize yourself. For example, I am young and married. That was easy for me. Paul talks about other categories of believers, other categories of saints in here. And guess what? We're supposed to interact with one another and compliment one another. So identifying where other people are is going to help your relationship with them. OK? So please don't just find Waldo. You know, there's Waldo in that picture. All right. Starting out.

Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance. Men, we need to get down to business, and as most of you guys know, if you're from a business background, you need a chart. But the thing is that Paul doesn't give us a chart with varying percentages. It's 100% temperate, 100% dignified and sensible, sound in faith, sound in love, and sound in perseverance. Those things are important. Let's see here.

When you see the word temperate, I don't use the word tempered a lot, but I do know sober. I have people that I know who are not so good at the sober thing. But Paul is telling there, the Greek word carries with it this idea of, hey, let's not be alcoholics. Not a big surprise to find that in the New Testament, but as you know, and maybe some people in your life have a tendency towards alcohol, maybe alcoholics, or whatever the vocabulary you like to use is, we're called as believers to not be dominated by alcohol.

Now, actually on the way to church, Sue and Wayne gave me a ride this morning, and we were talking about alcohol. And it was one of those things where I was thinking, hey, that's going to be my lesson. And you will not be surprised to find out that Wayne, as testified to by Sue, is temperate. So he's got that going for him, which is good. So we have this idea, be a teetotaler, have some coffee.

But as a young married man looking up to older men, if somebody is plastered out of their mind, would you come up to them and seek advice? I'm going to say generally the answer is no. That's not the kind of person you want to seek advice from. I get nervous when they come up and start talking to me, although I did at my grandpa Martin's funeral get about 40 bucks from a drunk uncle. That's about the only good drunk story I have. And it's not even a good one. He woke up poor and didn't know where it went. He thought we stole it.

That being said, temperate, sober, a good thing. Paul then goes on, you need to be dignified or worthy of honor. Again, if this older man is not worthy of honor, you're not going to come in the church body and say, hey, that guy, he's somebody that I need to be looking up to as he looks up to Christ. If he's got behavioral problems, if he's disrespectful to his wife, if he is not worthy of honor, if he doesn't carry himself in an appropriate way, that's a problem. Sound of mind. The word sound there means to be healthy or to have purity or cleanliness with your thinking there.

Now, I've got a speaker there, and that's a visual cue for me to tell you a story. My grandpa, who's just had the bypass surgery, used to work on recording equipment for recording audio. And one time, I was excited. I'd gotten this new guitar pedal for my guitar to add effects to the guitar to make it sound different.

And he just looked at me and he just shook his head because he said, I worked so hard to make the sound so clean and so pure and so undistorted. And you guys put a distortion box right in the middle to make it sound like garbage again. But if you've got garbage coming out of the sound, like on occasion sometimes my dad will yell, and I'm going to make it a point not to, where he'll be excited and he'll raise his voice, and the speakers distort, that's not pleasing to listen to. That's not something that you want to sit and listen to. If you're an older man and you've got people who are looking up to you and listening to you, if what's coming out of your mouth is garbage, it's reflecting what's in your mind, which is probably not right either.

So we want to be looking up to godly men who are of a sound mind. He continues on with sound in faith, sound in love, and sound in perseverance. All right. If you were here a couple of years back, we had an apologetics course. I co-taught that with my dad. It was on defending the faith. Why is Christianity reliable? You wouldn't want to go to a Christian man that was not reliable.

Hey, this guy doesn't really believe what he's saying. He just teaches it because they give him a paycheck. This guy doesn't believe what he says. He just goes to church because his wife stops nagging him. He's sound in faith. We need to have godly men who are sound in faith, sound in love.

Agape love is benevolent love. If you were in my Sunday school class this morning, you heard me embarrass myself doing a joke about agape. I'm not going to do that in front of the whole congregation. You'll have to listen to the MP3 online. Sound and love, being a benevolent love, a love that outshines the shortcomings of the young men and the young women and even possibly their wives, although I'm sure that's rare. Okay? An agape benevolent love that keeps giving and keeps going. I shared a story this morning in the Sunday School class and I'll share it again here. When my dad turned 42, I accidentally let my 1980 beat-up rusty old Chevy love scrape down the side of their new Toyota Camry. Happy birthday, Dad.

And he lovingly He lovingly helped me buff out the white paint from their gray silver Camry that they had. And he lovingly helped me bend my door back into place. And he lovingly worked with me. And I found myself amazed by this love that my dad had for me that exceeded damaged vehicles. It ended up being a couple hundred dollars to get the side view mirror replaced and he just covered it. He just loved me and that for me makes it very easy to identify with this concept of a sound love because I've seen it on many occasions.

Sound and perseverance. When Hal Malloy had cancer before the Lord took him home, he persevered and with joy. I remember him standing here in front of us telling us the ministry opportunities that the Lord had provided for him in the hospital. He had taught about trials and sufferings, and he lived it out right in front of me.

And it was tremendous. And I was sad when the Lord took him home because I thought, I'm not done learning from him. I wanted to learn more. But you know what? He lived it out. Sound and perseverance. It was a tremendous thing. So men, if you're older, you've been given this awesome challenge.

How are you going to do it? You guys are trying to be quiet. You're going to do it because you're abiding and the Holy Spirit is working through you. Scientists have discovered a female-only ant species. I wonder who they call over to kill spiders. I saw this quote and I just couldn't help but use it right here.

Men are roles, if you're an older man, your role is not just that of the exterminator. Alright, Paul continues on his letter to Titus. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslave to much wine, teaching what is good. Strangely, Paul doesn't mention ballet classes when he talks about older women teaching younger women. But he says to be reverent. Reverent means to stand out and represent holiness. Are you an older woman?

Is the Holy Spirit working through you that you can be an example of holy? Or what is holy? King James says, that which becometh holiness. Is it easy to be holy? Not if you're doing it in the flesh. Is it easy to be holy if God has made you holy? Absolutely. And God has made us as believers holy. And so it's not like you're starting off with zero and you've got to work up to 100%. You've been made holy.

Just let him live out through you. Not gossips. Really at Holly Hills I have seen so little gossip, if any at all. It's been tremendous. So this one is an easy one because I go, just keep doing what you're doing because God's already working through you so you're not a gossip. That's easy. The Holy Spirit removes this habits appeal.

I don't want to be hurting that person that I might know something about. Instead, I can be praying for them. It's easy to not gossip when you're loving somebody. Not enslaved to much wine. Volume is bad in wine and volume is bad in wine consumption.

Ephesians 5.18, do not get drunk with wine, but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't think, again, Wayne did not testify to Sue being an alcoholic.

Instead, they were discussing how rarely they had alcohol. So Wayne and Sue, good to go to about those things. I apologize. They'll never give me a ride ever again, I'm sure of it. But do not be enslaved to much wine. Paul writes to Timothy in his letter saying, hey, your stomach's hurting, you have a little wine. Wine is not a problem. Too much wine is a problem. Paul continues on, he says to these older gals, teaching what is good. Now here's an important question.

Do you feel qualified to teach? I've heard some gals actually say, no, I don't feel qualified to teach. Do you feel compelled to teach? Paul doesn't make that optional. It doesn't mean you're in a classroom setting. Do you feel like you have those who would listen? If you're a younger lady, are you listening to those who could teach you? See, what Paul is developing, and we're only halfway through this, but what Paul is developing is something that is really One of my favorite things to harp on if you've been in any of my Sunday school classes, anytime it comes to relationships, I get excited and I start raising my voice, which I won't do because I don't want to blow out the speakers. But I get excited about relationships. See, if you're having intimate relationships with one another, so that nobody, Ollie Hills is a stranger. Nobody, Ollie Hills is somebody where you've not been to their house and they've not been to your house.

And I have a number of you need to have over mine. You're going to have opportunities, older men and older women, to be teaching younger men and younger women. This is older generations and younger generations mingling intimately in their homes. This is not just grandmas and moms and granddaughters. This is people from households that you're not related to. It's harder at Holly Hills because we have so many big families that are somehow related.

But that's the principle that Paul is carrying on. Continuing on, because I don't want to slow down here, to young married women, the older women are teaching the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, to be pure, to be workers at home, to be kind, and to being subject to their own husbands. There is no substitute for an older woman in your life, young married ladies. For a godly older woman in your life, to be there is going to be way better than anything Martha Stewart will be able to show you in her living magazine or what they'll show you on the view on television.

Regular opportunities to fellowship and being encouraged, that's awesome. Can you imagine being discouraged and having no one who could encourage you? If that's the case, look around you because I bet you there's some folks that would love to get to know you. You can be reminded of the example. Sometimes I go and I will watch somebody do something I've seen them do it a hundred times, but it's a reminder and an example of godliness lived out in front of me. So remember, this teaching opportunity requires a person who's willing to come and learn.

If you're a younger lady, that's asking you to learn this, to learn lessons the easy way. How many of you only learn lessons the hard way? Please don't raise your hand. Really? Oh, okay. Or you are going to. Okay, some people did raise their hands. If you only learn lessons the hard way, maybe one of the things you can pray is that the Lord would help you learn lessons the easy way from the older gals that he's brought in your life. Now, he says to teach them to love their husbands. Culturally, in the Roman culture, it was common for husbands to go out and visit the temple prostitutes. That's always an exciting thing to put in a Bible lesson, is talking about prostitution.

Fortunately, I grew up in Nevada, so I'm used to that. In a culture where marriage comes with duty, it can come about that a woman resigns herself to just go through the motions. I'm just going to make babies. I'm just going to raise these babies and I'm just going to be someone that he provides for financially.

Paul says, hey, older gals, teach these younger gals about the depth of the relationship that they could have. The Greek word philandros means to be friends with your husband. This is not erotic love. This is not agape love. This is friendly love. I am friends with my wife.

Last night, I was trying to wrap up preparation for this, and I couldn't stop thinking about Jessica. So I went out and I just spent a few minutes just being with Jessica, talking with Jessica, so that I could finally refocus on the lesson, because I'd been busy throughout the day. And I just needed to be with my friend, my wife.

Fortunately, I can say she's a good example of being a friend to her husband. But I can look out and see a lot of older gals who are amazing friends to their husbands and can make it, if it's in any way difficult for any wives, that you might understand what it means to be a friend to your husband. This concept could be its own lesson, and it's just going to be a bullet point. So hopefully, if you've got questions, you will seek out an older woman to ask this of.

Teaching them to love their children. Now I happen to have children and I happen to have seen my wife want to explore other avenues besides love with those children because they're so obnoxious. There are times when my children are incredibly well behaved and there's times when they just get crazy out of hand. But an older woman can help a younger woman understand parenting concepts, understand parenting techniques, and understand ways to deal with their children so that it becomes easier to explore those loving moments instead of those moments where you'd really like to put the kid up on Craigslist or eBay and just get him out of the house. You know, we can pay off a couple grand in debt and not have to deal with a screaming kid. So, older women teaching the children about loving, or the women about loving. Now, then he says pure, and purity comes with the concept of modesty. You'll see on the left-hand side there, extreme modesty, and then some modesty with liberty.

But the truth of the matter is that in a culture that was full of sexual perversion, and I think those of us who've ever turned on a television in the last, I don't know, 30 decades have probably seen further and further perversion, When I go to the grocery store, I often want to cover my children's eyes. Abby can read now, and the stuff that gets put on the tabloid magazines or on the housewife magazines is pretty disgusting. The last thing Abby needs to read is how to dress and be sexy. No, she needs to learn about purity and modesty.

Fortunately, she can look around Holly Hills and see a lot of purity and modesty. Now, he says workers at home, and this one is, I knew this was going to be something that could be ruffling of feathers, so I put some thought into it. This is not having a Mary Kay job or Amway or spamming people and hoping that they'll buy things via your email or lemonade stands or Tupperware parties, okay? This is not being a busybody. This is taking care of things in your house. Women have jobs today. This is not telling us that they should never have jobs, but this is talking about being involved with your family and being involved with your household. Look around, you will find godly women all over Holly Hills. They're godly within their household, working in their home.

Then he says to be kind. Agathos is the Greek word there. To be kind or have a good constitution or nature. It's not a mystery how a saint can have kindness as part of who they are. Fruit of the Spirit involves kindness. Even men, you're supposed to be kind.

Remember when I point at you, I've got three fingers pointing back at me. Kindness is one of those things where, especially when the kids are getting out of hand, you need to love them and be kind. Young men, and I've just condensed this down to one slide instead of going slide after slide after slide because there's repetition here. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible, to be of a sound mind, to be sane.

It's easy to get caught up in your job. It's easy to get caught up in football. And I don't say football only because baseball season is on right now. And so I have to keep track of what's going on with the Rockies. As some of you know, there's also other sports. And you can get passionate and crazy and it'll be the middle of the winter and you've stripped down into shorts and you've got your body painted different colors because you're young and excited about the football team.

Man, be sensible. Don't do that. In all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds. It's very easy for me to give you examples of how not to do things because I have unfortunately made an example of myself of how to do things the wrong way. I have on multiple occasions, I'm going to name Phil here for a minute, on multiple occasions done some exciting do-it-yourself work at home and it's not quite come out like I expected. And so then I'll come back after the fact and I'll say Phil or Wayne and I'll say, So how would you recommend doing this one thing? Because I have already made the example of how not to do it the right way.

But Paul writes to the young men, and I count myself in this, that we would be an example of good deeds, the example of doing things the right way. He tells the young men about purity and doctrine. This is one of the things that I got caught up in, and so I want to be very careful that when we look at this, we consider it. Purity in doctrine does not mean arguing and fighting with people about doctrine over and over just to be right. I went to seminary and I learned all how to do that. I could rip you up one side and down the other to be Mr. Theologically Correct, and there was no love in it. But Paul says we need to have purity in doctrine. Why? because we need to live it out. Where are we going to learn it from? Anyone have a guess where we might learn purity and good doctrine?

Maybe the older men. Okay, go to the older men. We have elders who work really hard and have regular weekly meetings, if at all possible, to make sure that they keep one another accountable doctrinally so that they can communicate to us solid doctrine so we can do something with it. Again, dignity, to be dignified, to be honorable, If you're a young man, it's easy to do a lot of the embarrassing things that show up on YouTube, or wherever else where like, you know, you get the email and it's some young guy doing some young, stupid, dumb thing.

Don't be that guy. Sound and speech, which is beyond reproach. The words that come out of my mouth on multiple occasions, I could wiggle my toes and it might trigger the gag reflex because I've got my foot so far down my throat. Sound and speech, which is beyond reproach. What are you saying, young man? Control your tongue. I have a hard time with that.

If it's not for the Holy Spirit, I can't do these things. Again, the Holy Spirit is the only way we'll be able to do this. Paul finishes this passage with, "...so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us." In this world, I have run into so many people who don't think Christianity is worth even looking at because of some lame thing that somebody under the name of Christianity has done.

I don't even have my foot in the door. I can't get it. Because the Jehovah's Witnesses have knocked on that door too many times. The Mormons have knocked on that door too many times under the banner of Christianity. Paul calls us to be living that life so that we could put our foot in the door, that they might welcome us in.

Hey, you're different. Hey, I can't accuse you of doing crazy things because you're actually doing something that I've never seen before. And it's not you, it's the Holy Spirit. I want to take a few minutes, because I showed you this slide before, to cover some of the outlying areas that are not in the core four groups that Paul put together.

If you start at the bottom of this chart, young girl, young boy, who are the young girl and young boy to be looking to? are Luke and Abby and all the other children that are in the Sunday school classes to be looking to besides Crystal and Craig and Mike and John.

They're to be looking to Christ. We're supposed to train them to be looking at Christ. But they're also going to be looking at the young, single, unmarried folk. But they're also going to be looking at the young, married folk. And they're also going to be looking at the single, older, not married folk and the not single, older folk. They're going to be looking at all of us to see what Christianity looks like.

That's you. I don't think I missed anybody in the room. You should fit into one of those nice, easy rectangles somewhere in there. But they're going to be looking to you. My kids are going to wonder what a godly wife looks like and they're going to see Jessica. But they're not just going to see Jessica. They're going to see all you ladies out there. What does a godly woman look like?

I have two daughters, and I'm really hoping that once they get past this crazy stage, when they're maybe 35, that they'll... I'm not past my crazy stage yet, and I'm only 31, so I figure maybe in four years it'll wind down. When they get past their crazy stage, whenever that may be, They're going to have looked at you as an example.

They have played with Kaylee Kay so many times, and I'm sorry I'm picking on you. They've played with her so many times, and I have no problem letting them play with Kaylee, because she's a young godly woman. They can look up to Kaylee a lot. That's great by me, because I know the example that she sets.

So that takes us to the single younger woman, or the single younger man. If you're a teenager, and there are a few of you out in the crowd, what does it look like to be married? What does it look like to be a godly woman? Hopefully you can look to your own mothers. But if you can't, you can look to scripture and you can look to the ladies around you. Who are you going to marry? Are you going to marry some young stud who's probably only had 20 or 30 girlfriends? Or are you going to look for somebody like your dad right off because he's a godly man? or maybe your dad's not a godly man so you look for somebody who is a godly man and you look for that person as your example.

That's a big challenge for me. I want to be a godly man so that whomever might look at me and might actually be crazy enough to come to me for advice and see what godly living looks like can find me matching the description that Paul has called Titus to understand.

If you're a single adult He doesn't write in this passage about your walk, but let's take a look at some things. Principles for consideration. The characteristics described for a godly woman or man are the same, married or single. The difference is that you can, for the time being, line out the part about loving your husband because you don't have one, or loving your wife because you don't have one yet, or maybe you've been gifted with singleness.

But either way, godliness is godliness. That's not a problem. You can still have a deep relationship with other believers, whether they're older or younger. It's important. This intimacy that he's talking about amongst the body for looking for guidance and leadership and togetherness, it doesn't matter whether or not you've got a wedding band on your hand. You can still find examples from other believers who will edify you.

Some principles for you parents with young children things to consider fathers be the model of the husband you want your daughter to marry I Hope Abby wants to marry someone like me not because I think I'm awesome But because the life of Christ is living throughout me Be the model of the husband you want your son to be I don't have a son but if I did I would hope that he would want to be a A dad like I'm a dad.

I wanted so bad to be a dad. I didn't know what I wanted to be professionally, but I wanted to be a dad. Why? Because I thought my dad rocked. Maybe that's not your vernacular. I thought my dad was cool. I thought my dad was amazing. And I thought he was a godly man. And I wanted to do that someday.

Mothers, be the model of the wife you want your daughter to be when she gets married. Be the model of the wife you want your daughter to be so that when she gets married, she can treat her husband as prescribed in this passage. So that she's like, Whoa, what is Paul writing Titus? I've never seen this before. She goes, Oh, yeah, I grew up watching mom do that. I know what this looks like.

Parents love your children in the way that you ought to love your grandchildren down the road, not by spoiling them. Okay. As a parent, you have the responsibility to model parenting so that when they become parents, they're not going, well, I don't want to do what my parents did. That would be less than ideal.

Seek out wisdom from other older parents. Craig and Crystal Kays have been just a tremendous blessing in our lives for many reasons. But one of them is that they have said, hey, we've learned from being parents to Kaylee and Tristan. And here's some things you might consider with Abby and Evie. And it's been awesome. If you have children and they're down there and you talk with Craig and Crystal, I promise you they will offer you some kind of encouragement, some kind of edification, and you will learn. But there are also other godly parents here whom you can discuss things with.

Consider sharing creative ideas you've had yourself in non-invasive ways. Don't give people advice when you see their kids getting out of hand if they haven't asked for it kind of a thing. You don't want to step on toes. But be willing to share. If you find something that's effective, hopefully you've got a relationship with other parents so that you can share those ideas. If we're having this intimacy, it's going to be practical. I want to give you five easy ways to avoid applying this passage. It's important to know that you either have to apply it or you cannot apply it, and there are some easy ways to do that. Skip Sunday school and church. That's the easiest way. You'll never see any of us. You won't have to do any of these things. Avoid running into one another in public. I like to shop at odd hours of the day so that I don't see anyone. Phil and Sue Ellen live near us. Becky and Kurt live near us. The Epps live near us. I think y'all live near us, don't you? Yeah, see, and I'm surrounded by people who live near us.

I shop in ways so that no one sees me in public. Amazon.com, a good way. Just stay in your house, never go outside. Don't contact one another over the phone, Facebook, text, message, IM, or email. Don't communicate. That's a good way to not apply things. If you're older, avoid the younger crowd. If you're younger, avoid the older crowd. Don't mingle. There's trouble there.

You'll never understand the geriatric jokes. Don't have one another over and spend time together. For all intents and purposes, hospitality, which is commanded us in Romans chapter 12, should be ignored. Don't ever have anybody over for a meal because you might get to know them. And in my case, after this lesson, you probably don't want to have me over.

The fruit of abiding in the Spirit. None of what we've covered is remotely possible without the believer abiding in Christ. You can't do it in the flesh. Second thing, this is not a social construct. We're not out-Mormoning the Mormons with their social program. This is the body of Christ, which is better described as an organism. We're living together and the life of Christ is moving throughout us. This is viewed in grace.

When we blow it, we can still find growth and a learning opportunity. When I blow it, and listen, last summer we went to a group camping trip, and some of you may have been there, and I woke up, and I was a grouchy bear. I was not a happy camper in the remotest, slightest sense, and I was grumpy, and I blew it. And I went to the people that I blew it in front of, and I apologized to them. Some of you probably were going, oh shoot, here comes the grumpy guys talking to me. Because I blew it!

But there was a learning opportunity there. That learning opportunity still counts for something. It's still all things. Here are some action items. Now this is not a to do list of legalism. Okay, so everybody put your stones down, you don't have to stone me, because I've got a list.

But there are some things to pray and consider. Okay, pray about how the Lord would have you fellowship. What opportunities outside of Sunday morning can you set aside for fellowship? There's a group of folks who've had some dinners together that I've been blessed to participate in. And it's been tremendous to be able to participate in those meals because I've gotten to know some brothers and sisters in Christ.

And I think they've gotten to know a little bit of me. And you know what? Besides laughing, we actually really learned about one another and we got a chance to love one another. And it was awesome. Not awesome as in that's cool, but awesome as in I was in awe at the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of my brothers and sisters.

Pray about how the Lord would have you edify others. What things have you learned that you can share with other people? What can you pray about that you might say, you know what, Lord, if the opportunity arises with so and so, with about such and such, orchestrate the opportunity, Lord. Pray about hospitality. Seriously, I have on your on your handout, everybody have your handout? If you don't have a handout, get one or get a piece of paper or something. There should be the last rectangle should actually be a space for you to put down. It's on the back of page four there.

Consider writing down the square, the name, address, email or phone number of someone you're going to contact this morning. You'll get this information. to start implementing what we studied. Get to know somebody. Have them over for a dinner, have them over for breakfast, have them over for lunch. If your place isn't ready for people, go out, have a picnic, whatever you need to do. Get in each other's business.

Pray about God's growth of your character. These are all things that are ideal of the believer who's abiding. Pray that he will help you understand your relationship with him so that you can continue to grow in your character. I've already said that one. Pray about the doctrine of agency. Now this is a doctrine that is probably not taught as well as could be in various situations. Because we are Christ's representatives, we are his agents, there sometimes is an opportunity to have a need. How many of you consider having a need a blessing?

Go ahead, raise your hand. Awesome. The hands are really held high on that one. Okay. How many of you, when you've got extra, consider that a blessing? Also more hands on that one. Okay, good. The thing is that you may be blessed with a need so that someone who's blessed with an excess can be an agent of the work of God and fulfill your need. Okay, pray about when you've got a need, sharing that need. Pray about when you've got an excess, sharing that excess. With tough economic times like this, the doctrine of agency rocks. Because guess what?

Social Security is not going to cover what the body of Christ can cover. Welfare doesn't cover what the body of Christ can cover. WIC doesn't cover what the body of Christ can cover. No economic stimulation plan can, and I'm not getting into politics, okay, can cover what the body of Christ can cover. If you've got excess or you've got a need, you need to be sharing it so that the body can grow.

Okay? Consider praying about the doctrine of agency in your life, that you may be an agent. Pray about this body. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Even if it's not in the prayer chain, even if it's not on the handout that you get on Sunday morning, just open up the directory if you've got one or think about somebody you met last week and just pray for them. You don't have to be specific. God knows what they need.

But be loving one another in your prayer life. Pray for the elders. We have three elders right now and they're awesome guys. I love all three of them and I mean that genuinely. I love their families. Pray for the elders. They get hammered with weird stuff. I get to hear about outskirts stuff with my dad. He doesn't give me specifics because there's a lot of privacy and private issues they deal with. But they're constantly being hit with various things that they have to deal with. Pray for them. They love you dearly. They want to serve you dearly. Pray for them. Pray for the deacons. Things are getting cleaned up. Things are getting fixed. Last week we had water in the basement. I saw Wayne and Phil, and I don't know who else was there, working, getting things cleaned up.

Pray for the deacons. Pray for the Sunday schools. That's the adult and the children's Sunday schools. Pray for them. Those little kids down there need to respond to the gospel. I know because they're my kids. I want them with me in heaven to be with my Lord. Those little kids down there need to learn and grow in God's truth. Pray for them. If you're an adult and you're not in adult Sunday school, still pray for the adult Sunday school because you know what? The people who can make it, for whatever reason, need to be edified and focused on the Lord.

I'm almost done with my list, I promise. Pray about evangelism. Okay, and I'm not saying go door-to-door. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that the Lord would give you opportunities and open your eyes to opportunities to share the gospel. Pray about your children if you have them. If you don't, pray about other children. Pray for and with your spouse. If you don't have time together as a spouse, you're being godly together. It's a good practice to be praying with your spouse. Pray together after the service.

That means today, after the service. If somebody comes to you and says, Hey, you know, I lost my job. Hey, you know, I didn't lose my job. Hey, you know, I got a flat tire or whatever else may be going on. Pray together, even right after the service. Alright, this is the last slide. I said it was going to be a short one, but I don't think I've done short very well. Nope, I've blown short.

If you're older, seek out younger believers, or a believer in whatever the case may be, to fellowship with, and to exercise your calling as a mature believer to edify those who are younger, and pray for the young'uns. If you're older, pray for the young'uns. If you're younger, seek out an older believer or older believers to fellowship with and exercise your calling as a younger believer to be edified by the older believers and pray for the not so young'uns. This is a tremendous passage and the application of this, again, is something I can't do by myself and you can't do by yourself, but we can do it together. We can grow together in intimacy together.

That last square that you've got on there, it's a rectangle, if you're a geometry nerd. The last square on there does have a blank space, and there's a whole bunch of space underneath that. Fill it up with names and phone numbers, email addresses, text messaging, phone numbers, whatever you need to do, and get together. Because together, when the Holy Spirit works through us and we fulfill these things, some pretty tremendous things will happen.

Thank you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just come before you with gratitude for your word. We're thankful for the opportunity that we have to study it and to think about the application. Lord, thank you that my dad was able to stay in California a little longer and relieve my uncle and help my grandpa. Thank you that I can know this tremendous body of believers. We just pray that you would be lifted up in our lives and help us to know one another and know you more intimately. In Jesus' name, amen.