Faithfulness: The Fruit We Grow

until [music] it [singing] was accomplished. [music] His [singing] dying breath has brought me [music] life. [singing] I know that it [music] is finished. I [singing] will not boast [music] in any. No [music] grace, no power, [singing] no wisdom. But [music and singing] I will boast in Jesus Christ, his [music] death and resurrection. [singing] Why should [music] I gain [singing] from his reward? I [music] cannot give it. But this [singing and music] I know with all my heart. [singing] His [music] suff [music] from his reward. [singing] [music] I cannot give an answer. But [singing] this I know [music] with all my heart is who have made my [music and singing] for our second song we'll be singing bless the Lord oh my soul Bless the Lord, [music and singing] oh my soul. Oh my soul, worship his holy [music and singing] name. Sing like [singing] never [music] before. Oh my soul, I'll worship your [music and singing] holy name. The sun [music and singing] comes up. It's a new day. Dawn, it's time to sing your song [music] again. Whatever [singing] may pass and whatever [music] lies before me, let me receive [music and singing] when the evening comes. Bless [music] the Lord, [singing] oh my soul, oh my soul. Worship his holy name. [music] Sing like never [singing] before. Oh [music] my soul, I'll worship your holy [singing] name. You're rich [music and singing] in love and you're slow to anger. [singing] Your name [music] is great and your heart is kind. [singing] For all [music] your goodness I will keep on [singing] singing. 10,000 [music] reasons for my [singing] heart to find. Bless the Lord, [music and singing] oh my soul, oh my soul, worship his [singing] holy name, [music] sing like never [singing] before. Oh my soul, [music] I'll worship your holy And on [singing] that day [music] when my strength is failing, the [singing] end draws near and my time has come. Still [music and singing] my soul will sing your praise unending. [music] 10,000 [singing] years and then forever [music] more. Bless [singing] the Lord, oh my soul. Oh my [music] soul, worship his holy name. Sing like [singing] never [music] before. Oh my soul, I'll worship your [music and singing] holy name. Bless the [music and singing] Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul. Worship his holy [music and singing] name. Sing like never before. [music and singing] Oh my soul, I'll worship your [music and singing] holy name. Praise the Lord, my dear brothers and sisters, for this morning that we can all be here together today to worship God's name and to praise his name and to hear his word for today. And I want to do our Bible reading for this morning. And that's going to be in Psalms 49, page 8:14. Psalms 49, page 8:14. And this uh psalm it specifically talks about [clears throat] about wealth and how people like to chase the worldly things and the worldly wealth of this world and a lot of that stuff later on perishes away and a lot of people don't realize that but the thing that doesn't perish is God and how we need to focus on God. So if we like to start off in Psalm 49 and it says here, "Hear this all peoples, give ear all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall give understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will disclose my dark, saying on the harp. Why should I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity at my heel surrounds me? Those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches. None of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to a to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their souls is costly, and it shall cease forever that he should continue to live eternally and not see the pit. For he sees wise men die. Likewise, the fool and the senseless person perish and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever. Their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man, though in honor does not remain. He's like the beast that perish. This is the way of those who are foolish and of their posterity, who approve their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave. Death shall feed on them. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning and their beauty shall be consumed in the grave far from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. For he shall receive me. Do not be afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased. For when he dies, he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lives, he blesses himself. For men will praise you when you do well for yourself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers, they shall never see light. A man who is in honor yet does not understand is like the beasts that perish. Praise God. Praise God. And now we'll have Pastor Tim come up and say a couple announcements for us this morning and has a word for us right after. God bless. So friends, uh, praise God. I I'm glad to see everybody this morning here. We're going to be going through the topic of the fruit of the spirit, faithfulness. I know I said last week, goodness, but goodness and kindness were kind of the same. So myself and our senior pastor, Henry, we decided to go to faithfulness. But as uh Dimmitri was reading, I wanted to kind of um like read this verse. This is the way verse 13. This is the way of those who are foolish. So the foolish are uh the ones who uh dishonor God, who um who live for themselves, who love to do evil. So this is the way of the foolish. But look what this verse 13 says. This is the way of those who are foolish and their posterity who approve their sayings. In this world you will see that people will approve your sins. They will approve your evil. They will approve your disobedience. But this is the approval of a foolish person. This is a approval of a foolish person. And over here the psalmist says in the last verse, a man who is in honor yet does not understand. He's like the beasts that perish. So friend, today we're going to be um going through the fruit of the spirit of faithfulness. And this is a fruit that God grows in us when we take the wise steps. And maybe today God's going to speak into your heart. Maybe you were one of those ones who are the foolish ones who did evil, who approved of evil. But today the scripture speaks that come to him, give your life, make him your leader and your savior, your lord and savior. He will forgive you all of your sins and he will save you from eternal life from eternal life into hell. He will save you from that. He will pay your penalty. And that's the wise thing to do. And the other wise thing to do is take the Bible and see what it says and say, "Lord, help me obey your word. Help me obey your word." So I was not one of those foolish ones. Let's take these two minutes to meet and greet each other. We have a lot of new faces, a lot of new friends that came and uh to church this morning. So, let's take these two minutes to meet and greet and then we will begin our topic. So, I will say this during the topic um people can ask questions, people can share stories, you'll just have to raise your hand and there will be a mic given to you. Uh we do have people that watch us online and they want to hear your questions and your stories. So if you have something to share, it's for the public. This is how we do our discussions. It absolutely involves all of you. All of you. Um [music] so don't feel that if you have something to ask or say to be shy about it. Okay. So let's take these uh two minutes to meet and [music] greet and then we'll begin. [music] So, technical difficulties. Our Wi-Fi was down. Um, it might cut off, but Oh, I need my Bible. Everyone pick up your sword of the day. Your sword of the day. If if you didn't bring one with you, there's some in the pews. [clears throat] And we are going to if somebody can help me uh locate Galatians 5 202 in the the Bibles in the pews and give us the page number please so we can announce Good. Uh 1685 1685 1685. Thank you Jessica. Thank you Dimma. 685 and we'll be once again reading from verse 22 and below. But actually, let's read from 16 down to 26. I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit. Means the flesh wars against the spirit. So you're having a battle every day. Every day you wake up, you're in a battlefield and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works are of the flesh are evident which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lwdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murderers, drunkenness, revalries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christs have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. So as we see the scriptures teaches us, if you have submitted your life to God, Paul says, then walk in the spirit. We are at war every morning. Every morning we wake up, the battle starts. Sometimes it's even in our dreams. The battle doesn't end but we are at war and that plantation that you water is going to grow. So if it's a field of jealousy, envy, um adultery, if if that's what we water, then that's what's going to grow in our life. But if we water the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, then those are the things that are going to grow in our life. And we've already been through love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, and we are entering into the fruit of the spirit, faithfulness. So, I hope everybody has their pens and papers. You guys can write down these notes. But in the Greek term faithfulness means pistos is derived from the verb po to persuade or convince. This word describes someone who is worthy of trust, reliable and loyal. It implies a steadfastness through thick and thin. In ancient texts, it is often used for a person who keeps their promises or [clears throat] a treaty that can be fully relied upon. Also, pistus. This is the root from which we derive the concept of faith. In the New Testament, particularly when it lists alongside other virtues such as in Galatians 5:22, which we just read, it is best translated as faithfulness or fidelity. It represents the state of being completely dependable and true to one's moral conviction. And pisto this is the abstract noun form that literally means faithfulness or fidelity. It is the quality of being exactly what you say you are in doing exactly what you promised. So I kind of want uh pastor Henry to kind of explain the three faiths. So so we understand and can make a distinction what is the spirit of faithfulness and what it is not. Well, as we already talked with uh we talked before um or yesterday me and pastor Tim was talking about the three categories or faith. You can recognize in a translation that he read it's actually read as a faithfulness. There is other translation that would translate as a faith. Well, we got to understand that in old testament there was no concept of a faith like we have as a new testament. The pistus was used actually only when it implies to the faithfulness not so much a faith or belief that we have. So nowadays when we actually [clears throat] read the same word faithfulness or faith is written in Greek by one word it's pistas and so uh the when people were translating sometimes they would translate faith believe or faithfulness but this is a three different type of uh or three categy ories of faith. Number one, it's a saving faith. It's something that we believe that Jesus Christ died for us in Roman 10:9. Is it written? If we believe with our heart, then we'll be saved. That's not the same thing what written in Galatians that we just read. So then there is another faith that it's a gift of faith. In Corinthian chapter 12 we read that the gift of faith given to someone not to everyone. It says to one there is a gift of wisdom, gift of knowledge and to another gift of faith. So therefore it's not the same thing. And the third one, third one that we gonna talk about today is actually the fruit of spirit and it's called not so much as a faith or belief, it's a faithfulness. It's our action towards God or towards other people. So that's why even if we read it translate as a faith but the correct translation would be we becoming faithful to God and we are faithful or reliable or people can trust us. This is is a fruit that we got to grow in ourself. And so now when we're going to talk about we're not going to confuse between the uh faith that save us or believe. We're not going to confuse with a faith that can do miracles because it could be to someone given the uh the gift of faith and it's only given to someone. That's a gift. We are talking not about the gift. We're talking about the fruit that every believer, every person that start following Christ should grow it in himself by the help of a Holy Spirit. So that's what we're talking about today. Okay? And God's character is that he is faithful to us. He is faithful to us. And we see that actually in Luke 22:42. Jesus, he sets the ultimate example because uh Luke 22:42 was when Jesus was praying in the Mount of Olives the night before his execution. And he was saying these words, "Father, let this cup pass from me, but let not my will be done but yours." meaning that Lord, Father, can this somehow come pass from me? But you know what? Even if it doesn't, I will faithfully go to the cross for you. Like for your mission to save the lost sinner, I will faithfully end my mission how you want me to. He didn't give up when it was hard. And sometimes friends in our life we start a ministry uh we get all excited or we start something we get all excited we get a job we get all excited but then during the process we start being unfaithful yet Jesus here he sets the ultimate example if you start something serve faithfully to the end. Um, and in Hebrew 3, I wanted to read this so it gives us also an understanding of of true faithfulness. Therefore, holy brethren, this is Hebrews 3. Uh, you don't need to turn to it, but if you want to, you can. You can just write it down and read it on your own time. Therefore, holy brethren, meaning brothers and sisters, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him who appointed him. So who was faithful to him with a big H means he was faithful to the father who appointed him as Moses who also was faithful in all his house his again with a big H meaning that Moses who knows Moses here or who doesn't I think everybody knows Moses he was the one who led the the the Israelites out of Egypt Eypt and it was a hard task because he had to stand before Pharaoh. I mean he had to have full faith that God is going to do all these miracles. He had to stand before the highest authority that was executing people left and right. And then who is this Moses guy now telling the Pharaoh what to do? So he had to be faithful in his mission like Lord if I'm gonna die if he's gonna kill me then then he's going to kill me like he might take my life. So so over here we see that Moses also was faithful in all his house in all God's house for this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who built a house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but he who built it built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. But Christ as a son over his own house whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. So now this is Christ's house and he is faithful to us. He says, "A if you submit your life to me, have confidence that I will save you. I'm faithful to my word." I said, "Give uh like I came down to forgive your sins to save you. My words are faithful. If you do that, you will be saved." And maybe add to this, Christ would tell us like Reuben, please. Christ would tell us if you trust me, then I will bring you to salvation. It's just a lot of times we don't trust Christ. We once said Christ I believe that you are my savior but now when I'm struggling in my life do I come to Christ and do I trust him that he will deliver me from all my addictions from my struggle from my problems. Sometimes we forget about him but he said if you will trust your life to me I will bring you to your salvation. We just got to be trust in him because like um Bible says that because he's being faithful to the word of God to to himself and he said if I'll do this then he will do it. It's not like a person said hey trust me and then he never shows up some people but when Christ said trust me we can trust him. He's being faithful to whatever he said. Now we should know that and start trusting Christ and then he will bring us to a salvation. Yes. And in numbers 23:19 it also shows the the characteristic of God's faithfulness towards us. In Numbers 23:19 it says, "God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has he said and he will not do? Or has he spoken and will he not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed and I cannot reverse it. So over here we see that even in numbers 23 it says has he said and he will not do. If God says something, it's done. That's it. It's sealed. So the just the only one clarification sometimes we read in the Bible and we think is that when God is faithful, he just faithful no matter what I do. Well, let's read what uh most preacher actually would take the verse out of context and would explain uh this verse not in a way that Bible explain. It's a second Timothy 2:13. I know pastor Tim has that verse. But if we are not faithful, he will still be faithful. Christ cannot deny who he is. So, and a lot of people would explain, well, if I'm not faithful to Christ, then he's still faithful. He no matter what, he will save me. But unfortunately, that's not what the scripture is talking about. The scripture is talking about the verse before that uh verse 12. If we do not give up, we will rule with him. So if we do not give up on Christ and we trust in him then yeah we will we will rule with him. If we denied that we know him he will deny that he knows us. And then it says if we are not faithful he will still be faithful. So what it tells us is that Christ is faithful to who? actually to his word. It's not particularly to me. He is faithful to his word and his word says when we're faithful to him, we will live with him. If we'll deny him, he will deny us. So he's faithful to his word. And now what we should do, we should obey his word because no matter what, Christ will do whatever the word says he will do. There is no other way. And for us, we as a people, we as a believers, we should read the word of God and we should follow this word because we know whatever this word says, that's what exactly Christ will do. There is no other way. He will not favor me. He will not be unfaithful to his word because he gonna say, "Oh, you know, I love Johnny. Maybe I'll break my word and if even though he denied me, but I'll just bring him in." That's not being faithful to his word. So now, that's why we're here yet to study the word of God and see who he's faithful to. And he's faithful to his word. And now we got to actually obey his word. So that's the one misconception I want to clear up because a lot of preachers would take this verse out of context. Actually, first John 1:9, it's on the board. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the reason why Jesus came. He came deliver to deliver us from what? From sins. What is sin? Sin is a a broken law. Uh if we say it says 35 miles an hour and we go 60, well, we are breaking the law. We are sinning against the country in a way. [snorts] So, but Jesus says, "Listen, even if you broke my laws, you broke my commands, but you repent, I will forgive you, and I will wash all those penalties away." like you will be clean as if you never sped or you never lied or you never stolen. Jesus will cleanse that if we confess our sins. And he's like, "And trust me, I will do it. I will do it because I'm faithful to my word." Um, how Pastor Henry just explained. Does does everybody understand the the faithfulness of God towards man? Yes. Okay. Now we are going to humans faithfulness. And I kind of want the the audience to to help us out with this. So um the the human faithfulness it involves trusting God and being loyal to him. But look at this and others. Faithfulness is required in both big and small everyday responsibilities. So I'm going to share one faithfulness that man does with God and that's through baptism. Baptism is actually a very very very huge uh step in a person's faith. And if a person doesn't fully understand what it means and gets baptized, he did not faithfully commit his life to God. So baptism is this like we know salvation that's from God. We cannot save ourselves. That's the grace of God, the gift of God given to us when we call out. Baptism is our commitment that Lord this is a sign that from this day on I commit my life to you to serve you to love you to the end. So that's what baptism is. People get baptized [clears throat] and then they go and live their past life. That's called unfaithfulness. If we agree to get baptized, that's our commitment to Jesus that from this day on, Lord, I'm going to faithfully serve you and love you to the end. But [clears throat] so that's um also in numbers 30 it is written numbers 30 verse 2. Numbers 30 verse 2. If a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. in a baptism that that's a vow we make to God that we are going to serve you faithfully. Okay. Another um way that the the Holy Spirit teaches us of faithfulness is to be dependable and trustworthy. [clears throat] See in life sometimes we make a promise but what happens? We don't keep it right. I've done that. you know, made a promise and didn't keep it. And it doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good because what happens? You lose your trustworthiness. You lose your dependability. Meaning that people can't depend on you. So the Bible says, if you're going to make a promise, then go through with it. If you know that you might not be able to go through with it, don't promise because that is shown your unfaithfulness to your promise. What other ways and and uh maybe you can help us out. What other ways do we show our faithfulness in our everyday life? Hands. Anybody? Come on. And I need some people or how can we be faithful to God? Eli, the the next uh Messi, the next soccer star. How can we show our faithfulness in our everyday life? Okay. Uh Dimma, give him a mic. Okay, hold on. After Eli, uh Brandon is going to share. Um I mean we can show our faithfulness just by you know how the way we act when uh you know challenges like even just small challenges in our life come up. Um the way we act shows uh our faith in God and that you know everything is under control as long as we put our trust into him. Okay. Good. Uh Brandon gets a mic. We can show our faithfulness by doing exactly what Jesus said in the scriptures and loving thy neighbor as thyself and loving the Lord thy God with all thy mind, heart, soul, and strength. And I don't want to say a whole lot right now because I've had a really hard life and Jesus has saved me. I got saved when I was 20 years old at the Seventh Day Adventist Church at the end times presentation. I don't know if we're going to see Jesus fall from the sky. I kind of hope so, but I have a long life to live and I have plans. I'm a politician. I run want to run for governor in Idaho and uh make this world a better place. Okay. And then that's a really good answer. It's whatever the scripture says when we actually follow the scripture that's mean faithfulness. That's a Yeah, very good. Thank you. Yeah. More hands. Let's Let's have Vlad say something. Yeah, there is hand over there. Yeah, Vlad wanted to say something. He kind of did this. Oh. Oh, there was a hand back there. Okay. Okay. After Vlad, um well, okay, let's say uh in work, you have a contract. For example, if you're employed, you agree to fulfill um what you agree to in that contract. Or if you're in a business, you agree to fulfill certain types of terms that you agree to as well in that contract. or at the same time if you're married then um you agree to stay faithful to your partner to your wife or to your husband. Um so those are two things that I could come up with in the daily life. Yeah. Okay. A hand back there. Can you Yeah. So I'm like um our faithfulness can also come down to gratitude. You know, you have to be gratitude for everything that you have, everything you will receive, and everything that you're going to receive. Um, you know, God gave us this beautiful kingdom to live on. And 95% of the time, we do not respect it whatsoever, you know. So, in order to keep the faithfulness, we also have to treat it right. Amen. So, just keep that in mind when you're practicing your daily lives. Be mindful of others and the earth around you. It's that simple. Yeah. See, and very good. Most of you um got it exactly correct. Why? Because we're not talking about the belief. Yeah. Oh, I It's believing just in Christ. We're talking about faithfulness. I think the fly wants to say something. Yeah, I think so. But we [laughter] just we just let it fly. So and that's why in Luke for us to also uh that Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 16 verse 10 tells us this anyone who can be trusted it's the same word pistus faithfulness trusted in little matters can also be trusted in important matter but anyone who is dishonor in little matters will dishonest or dishonest in important matters. So honesty, trustworthy to be trusted, that's my action towards God and towards other people. So now when we're talking about the fruit of faith or faithfulness, it's my action how I act towards God and towards other people. That's what either faithfulness or trustworthy or opposite. It's actually when I'm unfaithful or untrusted person. And and for us we got to understand now we as a believers those who have faith in Christ. Apostle Paul tells us that we should grow in faithfulness to Christ and to other people. That's what we need to grow in. And that's what called the fruit of faith. And I like how there's this pastor Derek Prince uh he kind of mentioned these things and he's like he said, "Are you faithful at work? You got a job. How faithful are you that kind of like Pastor Henry said, God first tests you with the small things. Are you faithful there before he can entrust you to something bigger? Are you faithful in paying your bills? We have bills and you know, we're like, I'm just not going to pay. But once again, God wants to trust us in the small things. Are you faithful in borrowing, in paying back? Some people borrow and then they act like they never even borrowed. If you're going to borrow, are you faithful to pay it back? Once again, God test us on the small things before he can entrust us into the bigger things. So in our daily life, friends, are we that person that somebody can depend on? If we say something, do we keep our word? Are we faithful in what we do? And if we are, that means that your spirit is growing to be even more faithful. But if not, then the Bible teaches us that a repent, God will forgive you and say, "Lord Jesus, help me to have that faithfulness in my everyday life to to God and to others." And our time has already run out, but I'm just going to quickly run through this. Follow God's word, faithfulness. Brandon said, "Those who follow the word of God show their faithfulness." James 1:22, "Do not just listen to the word." Kind of how we heard today. Don't just listen to the word and deceive yourselves like, "Oh, I got it all right." No. Act according to it. Act according to it. If there's something in our life we need to adjust, act according to it. Luke 11:28, "Blessed are those who hear God's word and put it into practice." Once again, we heard God's word. Now, let us put it into practice. John 14:15, "If you love me, you will obey my commandments." And then the second one we talked about is keep your promises. Faith, it's another word for faithfulness. And that's written, I'm not going to read it in Ecclesiastes 4 uh 5 4-5 and James 5:12. So you guys can write those verses down. But our time has come to the end and uh I was hoping maybe we would have a little bit more time to talk about it, but I think we got our point across in the word of God. We we did just uh one last reminder. So the difference between gift and fruit. Give gift that it's given to you just God gives as a gift. Fruit that's something you work towards. So it's a hard work sometimes but that's what Bible encourage us to do to be faithful. So we got to work towards that. That's why it's called the fruit. It's not a gift. We have to bear this fruit in our life. Okay, let's uh stand up and pray. Lord God, thank you for your word, God, and forgive my unfaithfulness, Lord God. And Lord, I repent before you, Lord God, but help us, Lord Jesus, to be faithful first to you and to others, Lord God. to keep our promises to you and to others, God. To be faithful in everything we do, in our ministries, in our daily life, in our work, uh with our friends, with our family, Lord, wherever we are, God, please help us to be faithful, Lord God, that we can be dependable and trustworthy like in your eyes and in the eyes of those around us. May your name be praised and glorified in Jesus' name. Amen. And for our last song, we'll be singing Wonderful, Merciful Savior. [music] [music] Wonderful, merciful savior, [music] precious [singing] redeemer and friend. Who would have [music] thought that a lamb could rescue [music and singing] the souls of men? Oh, you rescue [singing] the souls of men. Counselor, [music] [singing] comforter, keeper. Spirit we long to embrace. You offer hope when our hearts. [music] Hopelessly lost [singing] the way. Oh, [music] we hopelessly lost [singing] the way. You are the [music] one that we praise. You [singing] are the one we adore. You [singing] give the [music] healing and grace. Hearts always hunger for. Our [music and singing] hearts always hunger for alm [music and singing] mighty infinite father faithfully [music and singing] loving your own. Here in [music and singing] our weakness you find us falling before [music] your throne. Oh, we're falling before your throne. You are [music and singing] the one that we praise. You are the [music] one [singing] we adore. You give the [music] healing and grace of hearts [singing] always hunger for. Oh, [music] our hearts always [singing] hunger for. You are [music and singing] the one that we praise. You are [music] the one [singing] we adore. You give the healing [music] and grace our hearts [singing] always humble for. Oh, our hearts [music] always hunger for. Praise God. And I just want to leave us with this this passage in James 5:12. Above but above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath. But let your yes be yes, and your no, lest you fall into judgment. Let whatever comes from our mouth be truthful and not a lie. If we say yes, we faithfully complete that task. If we say no, we say no. But um I just want to make a couple announcements. So [clears throat] uh next week we'll have a sermon and uh the week after that, which is August 2nd, we will have communion. So those who are going to partake, those that have been saved and baptized, uh can partake in communion. So that's going to be August 2nd. Let's prepare our hearts for that. Then on August 9th, we're going to have another podcast topic, how I say it, and it's going to be on marriage. So, if you guys know anybody who is in the process of getting married or seeking to get married or is married, uh please invite them because we're going to have guests who are going to be sharing their uh life stories and how they were able to become successful in their marriage. So we will have that podcast series on August 9th. So once again, next week sermon, the week after that, August 2nd is going to be communion and August 9th, a podcast uh on marriage. So our gym, thank God, is going to be getting painted next week. Uh for those that have been coming to church, we will be moving to the gym to have our service there. It's going to be from 9:30 to 10:30, so a little bit later, 30 minutes later, but we'll be moving there and we're excited for that. So, uh if you see another color next week, that means it's all in process and your money is going to God's work. Um, so praise God for that. Does anybody have any thankfulnesses that they would like to share or any needs that we should pray for? Uh, Brandon, then Doug, then Alfredo. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Hey, you know your Bible very well. But you know now like we just heard knowing and applying. Amen. We'll pray for a job. Doug. Yes. For Henry and Lola. Okay. Okay. We'll pray for Henry and Alfredo. What? Okay, we'll pray. Okay. Okay. Okay. How about after service you come to us and we'll pray for you again. Okay. Okay. Okay. Amen. Okay. Let's pray. Lord God, we are thankful that that we could come here and learn your word, Lord. Just help us to apply it, Lord, and help the spirit of faithfulness, God, grow in us, Lord. God, we ask for your help, God, because you said that you will send the helper, the Holy Spirit that will teach us and help us, Lord, to to love you and to be uh guided by you and to grow in you, Lord. God, we also, God, give these needs into your hands, God. We pray for Brandon. He's looking for a job, Lord. May you bless him in that. May you provide him God the necessary needs and bless him with a job Lord that he could see God that you are in his life and that you are his provider Lord. You see God he's not God he's not lazy. He wants to work Lord God. And we uh bless him Lord uh with this need God. We also bless or uh we're praying for Doug's need Lord God for Henry and Lala Lord God. You know what's going on with them, Lord Jesus. But we bring them into your hands, Lord, and save them and lead them in truth and bless them in their daily needs, Lord God. We also pray for Alfredo's need, Lord. We pray for full healing upon him, Lord God. Restore his health, God, remove those diabetes in the name of Jesus Christ. Restore his health and bless him, Lord. And we pray for his wife, Lord God, that everything in that house, God, uh, comes back to normal, Lord, and protect her there as well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. For your kingdom, your power, and glory forever yours. Amen. Be blessed. So in the gym there is coffee and breakfast. Brother Vasili, he has something special there. He's been staying up very late preparing this meal. So you know, say thank you, brother. But we'll see you everybody in