Alright. First Timothy chapter two verse eight. First Timothy chapter two verse eight. Here we go. Oddly enough, second Timothy two eight is not the same verse.

I turned the wrong Timothy. Alright. I'm in the right one now. Okay. First Timothy chapter two verse eight through 10.

I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame, faith,ness, facedness, and sobriety not with voided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. So we're going to spend just a few minutes looking a little bit closer at these verses this evening. What is Timothy about? Well, Paul has sent or left Timothy in Ephesus to lead the church there, to pastor the church there, and Paul is writing to encourage, to challenge, and to give some instructions to Timothy concerning teaching and the church and the way to grow the church and run the church in a way that is is honoring to the Lord.

He begins aptly with instructions concerning prayer. If we're going to start anywhere, prayer is a reasonable place to start. A fitting place. That's the word I'm looking for. A fitting place to start.

Prayer is worship. Worship is prayer. It is coming before the throne of grace as God has called us to do. And prayer should be part of our personal private life and prayer should also be part of our public life as well. So what does Paul expect Timothy to do?

To teach his congregation to what? To pray. To teach them to pray. Not only do these verses, the first eight verses, give instructions on prayer but also on the attitudes that Christians should embrace towards others, particularly authorities. God wants us to pray for them because as we pray for them and as God responds to our prayers, it may be that some of our authorities will be drawn to the Lord.

That the Lord might put people in authority over us that are seeking the same things for this country that our God is seeking. That God will bend the will and hearts of even those who do not know him to make decisions that are for the good of our society and that actually open the doors to lead men to who? To lead men to Christ. It is not our government's responsibility to lead people to Christ, but our government can open doors so that we can freely lead people to Christ, and we have been privileged to live in a country where that is largely possible. That is not true of most of the world.

Praise the Lord for the authorities that he has given us who for the most part make it easy for us to declare the gospel and to live for the savior and to live a peaceable life in service of our God. And verse eight, where we concluded last week, still on the subject of prayer, but also moving over to the next subject as Paul speaks to women, men and women, specifically in the church, we read in verse eight, I will for therefore that men pray everywhere, holding up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Now, does God want both men and women to pray? Okay? Obviously, the answer to that is yes.

However, having said that, there is something important in the Greek that you don't read here in the English, and that is the word men. The word men, the word in Greek translated men here is the word oner, not anthropos. What is the difference? Well, oner is a gender specific word. It means men as in masculine, as in male and not female.

Anthropos, which is the most common word translated man in our bible, is a word that means person. Okay? It is not gender specific. Okay? And so most of word time you read man or man, it is not gender specific.

It could be speaking to male or female but I didn't write this. Paul wrote this and if we believe Paul wrote it under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, then we need to take note that the word used is not anthropos. The word used is what? On air. So, particularly, Paul is speaking here not more broadly to the entire congregation but specifically to who?

But specifically to men. Okay? And what does God want men to do? God wants men to what? Pray.

He wants men to pray. What is masculine? What shows courage? What shows leadership? Is for men to stand up and what?

Pray. Pray boldly in the name of Jesus Christ. Lead your congregation in prayer, lifting up holy hands in faith to the Lord. God desires that of men. Sometimes in many churches, it seems like men have abdicated that and that is wrong.

Men should willingly take leadership in the church because, well, God says so. And for men to abdicate that role is not healthy for the church. When when we pray in prayer groups, do the men and women both pray? Yes. Is that good?

Yes. When I call on somebody to lead in prayer in the service, I call on men. Why is that? Because women's prayers are not heard as much as men's? No.

I do it because of this scripture and because of a couple other scriptures that tie into that. God wants men to stand up and be leaders and to lead. That is not just Paul's polity in the church, it is God's and it's not surprising. Paul gives further instructions in Timothy and in first Corinthians. Jesus chose 12 men to be his disciples.

The priests in the Old Testament all had to be what? Men. So that meant women were not as important in the ministry. No. That's not what that meant at all.

A matter of fact, some of the most influential people in the Bible in service of the Lord were what? Women. Well, what are their names? Phoebe, Lydia, Priscilla, Dorcas, Mary, Mary, Mary. There's at least three Marys.

Least three Marys in the New Testament. Ruth, Esther, Deborah, Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca Okay. We could go on. Alright? And the list goes on and on.

I think it's interesting when you read through first Kings and first Chronicles and it and it and it mentions the king. Many times, it mentions the name of the king's what? Mother. Mother. And she might not be mentioned anywhere else, but she's mentioned in reference to her son.

And, you know, in most of those cases where the mom's name is mentioned, the king is ends up being a good king. Now, why do you think that is the case? Well, I think God wants to make a point. The good king ends up a good king when his father's a bad king because of the influence of who? Because of the influence of his mother.

No doubt Hezekiah had a good mother. He didn't have a very good father. But no doubt he had a good mother and it made a difference. How about Samuel? Did he have a good mother?

What's Samuel's mother's name? Help me out. Does anybody remember Samuel's mother's name? Samuel. Come on.

Come on. Hannah. That's right. Hannah. Remember Hannah?

How dare you ladies forget Hannah? No. But just because God has established certain roles in marriage and and in the church does not mean that God does not see men and women as equals. They just have different roles. If you notice, women can have children and men cannot.

Okay? Women are mothers and men are fathers. Guess what? We're different and we have different roles. If a child does not have a mother and only a father, they are at a disadvantage because mothers are important.

If they have a mother and not a father, they are at a disadvantage because father's important. And mothers and fathers are not the what. They're not exactly the same. Now God can overrule and and God can take somebody in that situation and make them an amazing leader for Jesus Christ, and he has many times over. But men and women are both equally important and of equal value in the eyes of God.

And in order for a home or a church to function, it takes both men and women being faithful in serving the Lord. And also submitting to the will of who? To the will of God. So I think that is an important note here that we are going to pursue a little bit further come next week. In regards to lifting up holy hands.

Okay? Lifting up holy hands. This is not so much a reference to one's posture, but the purity of their what? The purity of their their heart. You can literally lift up your hands in prayer and that's a good thing.

You can bow your head in prayer and that's a good thing. You can lie prostrate before the Lord, and that's a good thing. You can pray while standing in the pulpit, and that's a good thing. You can pray while sitting in your car, and that's a good thing. It's not about your posture, it's about the condition of your heart and the sincerity of your what?

Of your prayer. That's what Paul is getting at. Lifting up holy, holy hands. The word holy, well, it represents holiness. That which is God honoring.

God honoring hands. Whether for ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, does that include prayer? Whether for ye to drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the what? Fear of God. Okay?

If with our heart, our mind, our hands, and our feet, we're doing those things which dishonor God, then we need not only to get on our knees and pray, but we need to get on our peace and pray and repent and do those things which bring honor to God. David says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not will not hear my prayer. In James four, James says, ye ask and you receive not because you ask what? Amiss. You ask selfishly.

You you ask covetously. You don't ask out of love and humility and desire to see the will of God done. If we did, we would see the answer to more prayers. That which is God honoring and clean and unpolluted in life and behavior. This verse of James five sixteen, it says, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

Should we be doing that? Yeah. That takes a little bit of humility. You gotta, you know, open yourself up a little bit and confess your faults one to another and then we need to pray for one another. This isn't about just getting something off your chest.

It's also more importantly about taking that need to who? To God. That she may be healed whether that healing is physical or spiritual or emotional or all of those tied together which in most cases, in a lot of cases, it is. But that's not the end of this verse. What does this verse end with?

The effectual fervent prayer of a what? A righteous man availeth much. There are people praying tonight whether it be in a memorial service with a 100,000 people or whether it be in a a little church somewhere or whether it be in their own homes who don't know Jesus Christ as savior. They may be sincere, they may be just going through the motions, but you can't have clean hands and a pure heart unless you come to God through whom? Through Jesus through Jesus Christ.

You can't be a righteous man without Jesus. You can't be a righteous man without humility. You can't be a righteous man without repentance. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth, accomplishes much. The only way to get that righteousness to attain it is through faith in Jesus Christ.

And not only through faith in Christ, but in service and in faithfulness to Christ. To be that person that is living in obedience to our savior. The best that we know how. And sometimes Sometimes we still mess up but you know something? The Bible says if we'll what?

Confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Praise God. He doesn't expect us to be perfect. He expects us to be humble. He expects us to have faith.

He expects us to be willing to admit when we have failed. God doesn't care about your standing in society, your speaking ability, your charisma, but the condition of your heart, your sincerity, and your faith. Those he rewards and he honors. It says here, I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Two things mentioned here, accompanying prayer that God God hears and acts upon.

One is not doubting. In other words, praying in sincerity and faith. James one five and six says, if any man lack wisdom, their man is Anthropos, by the way, if you wondered. If any man, if any one of you lack wisdom, let him what? Ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him.

But let let him ask in what? Faith. Nothing doubting. For he that doubteth is like a wave of the sea tossed to and fro, let not that man think that he shall receive what? Anything of the Lord.

So if we're going through prayer and the whole time we're praying, we think, well, God's not going to answer this. Well, God can't do this. Well, this will never happen. Well, guess what? He probably won't answer it and it'll probably never happen because you've already written him off.

Okay? So, God challenges us to pray with holy hands and with faith and not with wrath. I I think it kind of odd that he throw. Why does he throw in here without wrath and doubting? Because prayer Prayer is a humble activity.

Wrath is usually a prideful activity. The Bible says the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of who? God. Because usually, our wrath is tied to how somebody treated us. And we think we deserve better than how we got treated.

So we get what? We get angry. That's not that's not the way to go to God in prayer. Go to God in prayer how? Humbly.

Without wrath, in faith, and in love. In love. Praying for others should not be an act of wrath. It should be an act of what? Of love.

Yeah. Without wrath and doubting. What is Matthew chapter five and verse, I think it's 44? Right here, say, it says, but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. What does God say for us to do with those that it would be natural for us to be angry with?

He said instead of being angry with them, do what? Pray for them. Instead of getting back at them, pray for them. Pray for them. It is an act of love and humility and faith.

It is not an act of wrath. So pray without wrath and doubting. Particularly, need to learn to do this. We want to straighten everybody out. We tend to have a short fuse.

We tend to think we can fix everything on our what? On our own. But the men of the church need to be led by the Holy Spirit and the Lord and not the what? And not the flesh. How do we how do we destroy the strength of the flesh?

By getting down our knees before the God of heaven, and you will destroy the power of the flesh. And then he speaks to the women. This is one of those very popular passages of scripture in our culture today. But nonetheless, it is the word of who? It is the word of God.

So, we'll just skip over it. No, we won't. We won't skip over it. Now, specifically to the women, and another reason I I see not only the word on air being used in Aiden, while God is kind of preaching to the men about their prayer life and being leaders, is it says, in like manner also. In other words, when he talked to the man, now he's going to talk to who?

Talk to the women. Okay? Why does he bring up these particular issues? Probably because he had seen them being issues in his ministry or had heard from Timothy that these were problems in his church. Therefore, he addresses them.

Paul is not, in his letters, is not usually writing a a doctrinal thesis, though he he a large part of Romans is that way. But in most the cases, Paul's letters, he is responding to issues. He has heard this is an issue, that is an issue, this is a problem, that is a problem. So Paul is writing to instruct them to deal with these particular issues that were cropping up in the church. Evidently, this is one of those issues and so he is going to deal with it unlike what we often do because we're cowards and want to not have to deal with tough subjects, Paul does not skip them.

Instead, he he deals with them head on. And so in verses nine and ten, he says, in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which becometh women professing godliness that is the kind of modesty of of of attitude and heart and apparel that is fitting for women of godliness with what? Good works. Okay? So if you have dressed up today, man in a three piece suit with a tie, which I didn't wear on purpose this evening, I left off the tie and all the coats back there, or if you you have a a beautiful dress that covers you from neck to foot, That is not the essence of this passage.

Okay? What does God want from us? To dress conspicuously in a different way than everybody else. No. That's not what God wants.

God wants us to live godly. God wants our attitudes of our heart and our actions to be godly and he does not want our apparel or our attitudes to detract from the what? From the good works and from the testimony of the Lord. You do not become more godly by dressing a certain way but you can detract from your testimony and dishonor the Lord by acting or dressing or adorning yourself in such a way as to dishonor him. And that is what Paul is addressing addressing here.

In the end, the goal is good works and the testimony of the Lord and Jesus Christ. What is the thing that he is dealing with is that with detracts from that testimony in the church and none of us want that. If I walked in with shorts and a tank top tonight and walked into the pulpit, y'all would look, what's wrong with him? Would it detract from my message? Would I be the same person?

Would my message be the same? Are you saying just because the way I'm dressed, it would detract from my message? Yeah. It would. And it does matter what what people see.

And you don't have to be dressed up in a three piece suit and tie. That's not necessary, but it's also necessary to show respect for others and for the Lord and what what we're doing this evening because I'm preaching the word of God. I'm representing the savior. He is worthy of me dressing up. I don't dress this way at home.

I certainly don't dress with a tie and a coat on at home. I I am I have a hard time finding clothes to fit this particular shape that I am. And so it's much more easy to wear a t shirt around the house and it's more comfortable. When I come to church to preach the word of God, I I I dress up some. Why is that?

Don or who? To honor the Lord. And it's not that I want you to be impressed with how I'm dressed. That's kinda hard to do. But even if it were, that's not the goal.

The goal is to not detract from the message from the Lord and from the word of God. We just want to we want people to honor the Lord. And so if I was going to to sit down at a meal with the president of The United States and I was invited to go to a banquet honoring some great leader, I would probably dress up at least this way. Why? Because it's important out of reverence, out of respect.

It it it does bother me that that we're we're we tend to extremes and seems like we're kinda going to the wrong what, to the wrong extreme. We think it's cool to to walk up in a pulpit with a, you know, a Budweiser t shirt on and ripped jeans. You can send the wrong message by just what you wear, can't you? So Paul deals with this. It wasn't particularly a problem in the church, it would seem, with the man, but it was particularly a problem in the church with the with the women.

So he addresses it. Women want to look pretty. That's okay. Women, especially young women, want to draw a little bit of male attention. That's not altogether bad because hopefully, young women will want to marry a young man someday and but there are limits and there is that which is decent and honoring and that which is not, especially for those who are married and have husbands.

Modest apparel, he says. In like manner also, the women adorn themselves in modest apparel. The term modesty refers to an attitude of the heart, not just a particular style of clothing. A modest person is someone who does not seek to draw attention to who? To themselves.

But is content to be inconspicuous and draw attention to God. Men can struggle with this sin as well as women. A desire to draw attention to themselves and draw attention away from the Lord. And it's usually a pride problem. It's a, you know, a look at me problem.

And the look at me is drawing attention from away from who? Away from God, particularly in the what? In the church. And that's what Paul in particular is speaking about here in Timothy is is in the church. However, in this passage, the imperative is given to women of the church who must okay, I've already covered that.

So number one, let's see. Verse nine again. That women adorn themselves in modest apparel. We'll come back to that with shame facedness and propriety. We have sobriety.

Okay. Propriety is on my paper here but sobriety there. Shame facedness and sobriety. Shame facedness also could be translated propriety is an attitude of humility whereby one is careful not to dishonor the Lord or others. In this context, the focus seems to be on the appearance and deportment of the ladies in the church who might have been too forward and provocative.

Thus, bringing shame upon their husbands and upon the Lord. How you act, how you dress, how you're doing yourself, it does does matter because it either can can enforce, drawing people's attention to God or it can it can distract from it. Either can bring honor to the Lord and to your husbands or it can bring dishonor. In Hebrews twelve twenty eight, it says, wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us grow in grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with what? Reverence.

What's the word reverence mean? Honor. Serve the Lord with honor. And that should extend to every aspect of our life, men or women. He's not specific.

He didn't even preach the tribulation. He's to every every Christian. With reverence and and godly fear. Because you know who else is watching how you talk, how you walk, how you dress, how you act, how you talk? God is.

And so when we no matter what we do, we should do it with the understanding that God that God is watching and he is worthy of our respect. And that should be true of of every area of our life. In Ephesians five thirty two, specifically, it's talking about talking to women again. Ephesians five, Paul says, nevertheless, not every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself. That's the man to husband to wife and the wife see that she what?

Reverence her husband, that she honor her husband. The both should be true. He told men in this passage to love your wife even as what? Christ loved the church. That that's quite the calling.

That's quite the the duty, privilege, and the service of husbands to wife and that the wife reverence her husband. One way a wife can honor her husband is by being a little bit careful withdrawing undue attention from other what? From other men. Yeah. So be careful.

Be careful. Honor the Lord. Honor your husbands. First Corinthians 11, Paul spends a great deal of time on this. We won't go there this evening for the sake of time, but read first Corinthians 11 sometime and and we'll get back to it, but he's talking about women in the church of Corinth were evidently having a hard time with this and they were not honoring their husbands in their activities and Paul had to address it.

Shame facedness and sobriety, that means moderation, emphasizes the need to be self controlled in our behavior appearance in public, which again cuts both ways, both men and women, but seems to have been an issue in Ephesus particularly with the women. I don't particularly like the word balance. I think we misuse the word balance. It's not that we're balancing the bet. You don't want to just land in the middle somewhere.

You want to land on the best. That right? We we wanna be excellent for the Lord. We wanna be the best we can for the Lord. We don't we don't need to be in the middle some here.

We we need to be giving God our all, not, you know and I think sometimes balance is the wrong word to use for that reason. But moderation. Moderation. You know, don't go to the extremes. You you don't have to and I and I have a great deal of respect for for Mennonites, and we go to Amish country when we're in when we're up in Ohio.

They have this really cool place called the Ashery where Kate gets all these spices and stuff and cooking stuff and and all of that. It's run by Amish and Mennonites. Now, Amish teach a different gospel. It's a gospel of works. But Mennonites Mennonites, if you look at Mennonite doctrine, it is very similar to Baptist doctrine.

Doctrine. Okay? They they take it a a little bit further on the separation side than we do and the ladies dress with those little caps on their head and their dresses are kind of drab and they literally go from here to here to down to their ankles. Now, is there anything wrong with that? No, but but you don't have to go to that to that extreme but what happens off the time in baptist churches is we go to the what?

We go to the other extreme. Is that the right thing to do? No. Use your head. Honor the Lord.

Honor your husbands. Send the right message. Don't detract from the good works by simply dressing in a provocative or immodest manner or acting in a provocative or immodest manner. Let your moderation be known to all men, it says in another verse. Not adorning yourselves with embroidered hair, gold jewels, or costly array.

Now, does this mean that God does not want ladies to, you know, go to the hairdresser and make your hair look nice? I don't think so. What is God saying? Well, the women in the church from what I understand that had money back in Paul's and Timothy's day, they they would braid their hair with gold and stuff in their hair. Why did they do that?

To show to show off. Look at me. Look at look at me. Look. I'm rich.

I'm well-to-do. I'm pretty. Look at me. Okay. Is that the right attitude?

Is that what God intended? What it what it caused was a similar problem we read about in the book of James where God said, don't be impartial in the church. Don't show partiality. He said, a rich man comes in the church and you set him on the front pew, which used to be considered a good thing, not in Baptist churches. Everybody wants to be on the back pew.

But you set him on the front seat as though he's somebody special and the poor guy comes in and you say, yeah, sit back there on the stool against the wall. Okay? Similar issue to this one. Showing off, being partial, being provocative, drawing attention to yourselves. This appoints to an abuse of their liberty and flaunting particularly of their wealth, which brought undue attention to themselves drawing away from who?

Away from the Lord. This sin here was not the use of jewelry anymore than it was clothes, but the misuse and abuse expressing in a modest heart not befitting a Christian with good works. The women in the Bible wore jewelry as far as I can tell, and they kept their hair looking nice, and they wore pretty dresses if they could. I'm sure that was all the case. But show your moderation.

Be careful not to detract from the worship of God. I'm afraid, again, the pendulum swings from one extreme to the what? The other. In churches in the past, they either dressed up in such a way to show off their their beauty and their riches or they dressed in terribly drab clothing to to try to do the complete opposite. Either way, it actually drew attention in the end to the wrong person.

We're shows be showing drawing our attention to attention to the Lord. And in today's churches, we've tended to go again to another extreme where we say, well, it absolutely doesn't matter. And I think it does only because we need to show honor to the Lord and not dishonor to him or to our husbands, to your husbands, or detract from the message that God has given. He is also speaking of modesty in a moral sense, not being provocative or drawing undesirable attention, such as a harlot would draw attention, unrighteous attention of men, clothing that is incredibly tied or revealing. It is ungodly to show up in the church and dress that that would have not long ago identify one as a harlot.

That sounds kinda mean and rough, but I'm afraid in some cases that that is the case. I I used to drive when I was in college, I had to send in once a week a sermon outline over the summer. So if you know me, you know that I wrote that sermon outline, had it done and sent off in the mail a week ahead of time. No. That's if you don't know me.

If you do know me, I worked and fiddled and waited and changed my outline 50 times. And then I had to have it postmarked by midnight on Tuesday. I lived in the country thirty minutes from the main post office, but I'm guessing seven or eight times over the summer, I was driving in to the post office in Roanoke before midnight to get there to mail off my sermon outline so that it would get postmarked by the right day. That is just terrible, isn't it? Just terrible.

Just terrible. Not quite as bad now as I was then. But I would drive through Downtown Roanoke at midnight in my car. Yes. Till midnight.

Till midnight. I had to have it there by midnight. Downtown, rough area of town, big city, what do you think I saw on the corners of the streets when I was driving to the post office back at midnight? I saw women. I saw I wouldn't call them ladies.

And you could tell what they were doing by their what? By their dress. Solomon refers to that back in Proverbs. He refers to the adulteress. And one of the ways he refers to her is, well, you can tell who she is by her what?

By her dress. So I think God would have us to be careful that our dress not send the wrong what message or stir up the wrong lustful feelings. You know, God holds men accountable for their lustful thoughts. But I do think God does also hold women accountable for purposefully enticing those thoughts. Both things can be what?

Can be true. And I think and I think both things are. So modesty is God's expectation. And I'm not here to tell any ladies how long your skirt has to be to be modest or your neckline or anything else. Okay?

Because, you know, God did not tell me where the line in the sand is, but God expects us to use some wisdom and discretion in our own lives. Again, what is his focus but that which is befitting of a Christian woman with good works? Actions, activities, and public context, conduct which sets them apart from the world, bringing attention to their savior and Lord rather than their figure, hair, or wealth. Beauty which comes from the heart, which resonates in words of compassion, which is expressed in submission to the Lord, sets ladies of faith apart from the world. Not just their dress.

Paul isn't suggesting that. But the things that really matter. Turn if you would, and I'm about done over to first Peter chapter three. First Peter chapter three. What does Paul write there?

He says, likewise, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands that if any obey not in word, that is that any of your husbands obey not in word, in other words, are not saved or certainly not demonstrating that, they may also by may without the word be won by the conversation or the conduct of their wives. While they behold your chaste conduct, conversation coupled with fear, with reverence, whose adorning, let it not be outward adorning of plating of the hair and of wearing of gold or putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man, the hidden person of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit. That is what sets. That is what Peter writes. It must have not only been an issue with Paul, but it must have also been a concern of Peter.

Rather than drawing attention to yourself by going overboard in one way or another by what you wear and put on, be let it be your meek and quiet spirit that changes the hearts of your husbands and sends the right message. Our adornment and our attitude and our actions can either enforce that or it can, what? Detract from it. And then in Titus two eleven through 13 in closing, Paul writes this, for the grace of God bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Now again, that's Anthropos.

That's mankind, not man. Okay? That includes women. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us teaching us all that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our savior, Jesus Christ. So let's do that.

Let's do that. And if we do this with all our heart, then this other issue over here, it's not gonna be a what? It's not gonna be an issue. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our savior, for the example that you set for us.

You you didn't come showing off. You you born in a stable. You the Bible says your your stature was not particularly impressive. It was your words that were. It was your heart.

It was your sacrifice that set you apart. And let that be the attitude of our heart that others may see Jesus Christ in us. And let us be careful not to detract from that by things that need not be an issue, let us seek the Lord with all of our heart and let Jesus Christ be seen. And the meek and quiet spirit of us all. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.