Act Like Men

Notes: 

NEEDED: GODLY MEN

1 Corinthians 16:13

Intro:

 

illus…Brother Andrew behind the Iron Curtain…did not take the easy, coward’s way out but trusted in God…

 

Toward the end of several of his epistles, it was the Apostle Paul’s custom to write a series of short, crisp instructions that created a buffer between the main body of the letter and the formal greetings at the end.

 

1 Cor 16:13 Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.

 

These four commands: watch, stand fast, be brave, be strong – are what a general might say to his troops before the battle.

 

FOUR WAYS TO WALK IN GODLINESS:

 

• Know what is happening.

 

1 Chron 12:32 of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command

 

Watch = “be alert; be on your guard; be vigilant; a determined effort at wakefulness; have awareness”

 

It offsets being careless.

 

Often used for looking intently for the return of Jesus to earth.

 

Matt 25:13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

 

What if we lived each day reminding ourselves that our Lord could return at any moment? How would our priorities change? How differently would we respond to others whether friend or enemy? Watch.

 

God’s men know what is happening. They are aware of His presence. They remain alert. They keep watch.

 

• Stand fast in the faith.

 

“the faith” = specific teaching necessary for a legitimate claim to be a Christian.

 

It offsets being inconsistent.

 

1 Tim 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

    God was manifested in the flesh,

    Justified in the Spirit,

    Seen by angels,

    Preached among the Gentiles,

    Believed on in the world,

    Received up in glory.

 

Word became flesh (incarnation); vindicated by the Spirit (temptation); marveled at by angels (adoration); declared to sinners (proclamation); message received (salvation); returned to His Father (ascension)

 

Steadfast in the truth.

 

This charge to be stable in what we believe is followed by two more instructions, that when taken together demand that we not mix the purity of our doctrine with worldly living. We must not syncretize the message of Jesus with the ways of the world.

 

Jesus is holy and the world is wicked. Jesus is Lord, but the world is godless.

 

• Act like men.

 

be brave = “be a man of courage; act with maturity; play the role of a man (not a child)”

 

The emphasis is more on maturity than masculinity. “Have the courage of an adult.” “Be the grownup.”

 

There is often extraordinary pressure placed on Christians to conform to pagan culture. Mature men do not cave.

 

It offsets being childish.

 

1 Cor 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

 

• Live in power.

 

be strong = “be made strong (something God does to us)”

 

It offsets being ineffective.

 

power – supernatural ability to make wrong things right. (Jack Deere)

 

Closely related to the biblical concept of justice.

 

cold heart? set on fire for God (Saul/Paul in Acts 9)

moral bondage? (prostitute in Luke 7)

addictions/substance abuse? (what some of them “were” in 1 Cor 6:9-11)

illness/deformity? (the multitude in Matt 15:29-31)

control of darkness/demonic? (Gadarene demoniac in Mark 5)

 

1 Cor 2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

 

Many church buildings are made for talk, not power – they become lecture halls, not healing places

 

Famous in hell…

 

Acts 19:15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

 

Make the decision that the realm of darkness that opposes God can never say “who are you?” and mean it.

 

Acts 9:22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

 

Do you see the direct connection between walking in God’s power and testifying to the truth about Jesus?

 

Application:

 Transcript: 

All you have to know is that men exist, and this will help you today. So you don't have to be a guy. But I do call this message act like men. And because that's a Bible verse, and I'll show you if you find in your scriptures. I've got a short verse with four commands in it.

First corinthians 1613, one corinthians 1613 is my text today. And as you're finding that, I'm going to tell you a story that I read this week, and it's just gripped me. Ten years after world war two ended in 1955, with communism fully entrenched in much of Europe and all of the Soviet Union, a dutch missionary known simply as Brother Andrew made his first visit behind the Iron Curtain. Brother Andrew became a Christian. After high school.

He attended seminary in the United Kingdom. Even though he was from Holland. He went on faith. He didn't have any money, but the Lord provided. That's a great story that I'm not even going to tell you today.

And after his seminary, he began to have open doors. In fact, that's what he eventually called his ministry, open doors. You can go to the website today, not during the sermon. And he was shocked when he toured Poland as an invited guest of the polish government. The communist regime.

There they were inviting visitors in to, to see all the new wonders of communism. Christians were being severely persecuted behind the Iron Curtain, and they were being reeducated by the state. And as young as the children could be to be carted off to school, they were being taught there is no God. The state is God. God doesn't provide you daily bread.

You're able to eat because of the government and the government only. And on that short trip to Poland, Brother Andrew gave away 100 gospel tracts and a couple of bibles in the language. But he prayed for the lord to open doors, to return behind the curtain to help as many believers as possible. And God began to hear that prayer. Soon he was invited on another tour by the communist party of a country that no longer exists.

It was called Czechoslovakia. Do you remember Czechoslovakia? In third grade? You could get five points added to your spelling test as a bonus, if you could spell Czechoslovakia correctly. And I did.

Amen. And so that happened. So he goes into Czechoslovakia and this time he brought more bibles and other literature and he sought to visit as many of the churches that would have him there house churches, mainline churches. Anybody that heard that the dutch missionary was in town to, quote unquote, bring greetings. And so he did.

But he said, you know what? I got to get away from this government tour group. So he slipped through a crack in the. A big crack in the door of the tour bus when everybody was looking at a monument. And he just took off in town, in the city saying, God opened doors to the churches where I am.

And when he sneaked away, what he saw changed the course of his life. In one church meeting where he was invited to speak and, man, I can't get over the picture this drew in my mind as I read his book this week. In one church building, there were no bibles. They didn't even have any hymn books. But a few of the congregation brought what seemed to be loose leaf notebooks with paper written with words written on handwritten pages.

And it also appeared that to Brother Andrew as he sat in the back, that for some reason there was an eyesight problem in this church. It appeared that many in the church were far sighted as they held up their notebooks as far away from their eyes as they could and above their heads. And then it occurred to him they didn't have any hymn books. They didn't have any bibles. But the members of the church who could find paper would write down the hymns that they sang to remember.

And if somebody came and preached, they would write down as many Bible verses as they could scribble off, and then they would hand it off to the next person. And that's what they had to study. So they were holding those loose leaked paper up so that all around them could read what was being written.

They were holding them up so that others could read along. The pastor of this church informed Brother Andrew that it wasn't legal for any foreigner to preach in czech churches, but they could do something that they called bring greetings. They could bring greetings from their homeland. And if he so chose, he could bring greetings from the lord himself. And brother Andrew thought, greetings from the Lord himself, eh?

And that turned into sermons. They didn't call them sermons. And so from church to church he would go all that day bringing greetings from Holland and greetings from the Lord himself. And as they got near the end of the day, his interpreter said, hey, there's one more church I want you to see. And Andrew said, but I've been away from my tour group.

I bet they've called the police, I bet it's bad. I've got to get back to them. And his interpreter said, no, come see this one.

They arrived at 07:00 p.m. at the medium sized congregation. It was a moravian church and brother Andrew couldn't believe his eyes. He was encouraged to see at least 40 young adults, ages 18 to 25 in the congregation because all the other churches he had been at had been mostly elderly christians. And then he noticed that all those 40 young adults had two things in common.

They were wearing a little silver lapel pin. And after he got finished bringing greetings they all had lots of questions. Questions like this, Brother Andrew, can christians in Holland get good jobs?

Does anyone report you to the government when you go to church? Can you attend church and still get into the university?

Andrew was stunned by these questions, but he was even more moved by what came next. The pastor then went up on the platform and he had a gift box in his hand and he handed it to brother Andrew. And when Brother Andrew opened up the gift box in front of the congregation he pulled out one of those lapel pins that all the young people were wearing. It was silver and it was in the form of a coffee cup.

And the pastor said to Brother Andrew in front of the congregation, take this to Holland and when anyone asks about it, tell them about us here, that we're part of Christ's body too and we are in pain. This is the symbol of the church in Checo, Slovakia. We call it the cup of suffering.

Because he had sneaked away from his tour group, brother Andrew was expelled from the country of Czechoslovakia immediately. That evening. In fact, he was refused reentry for the next five years. On his next visa application, this time to Yugoslavia, another nation that no longer exists, been split into others. Andrew was faced with a choice and he didn't take the easy coward's way out.

Instead he trusted God and told the truth. As he was making application at the consulate to get into Yugoslavia, there was a line on the application. The line said occupation.

Andrew closed his eyes and wrote the word missionary in the blank. And of course immediately his visa was denied. But he kept praying and he would not be deterred. And he made one more trip to the consulate a few days later to make one more application request. And this time when he got to the occupation question, he prayed again.

And when he prayed he said, the Lord brought verses to my mind. It was the verses of the great commission verses that our church knows so well, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you. That's what Jesus said. And Andrew said, teaching them, that's what I want to go do. And that's when it occurred to him.

Instead of writing missionary in the blank, this time he wrote the word teacher. And when he wrote the word teacher and he handed in the visa application, he was immediately granted a 50 day visa to one of the most hardline communist nations behind the Iron Curtain. He couldn't believe it. God was opening the door. And when he reached the border of Yugoslavia in his 1955 blue Volkswagen Beetle, crammed with bibles, he was stopped by the state police at the border, and they demanded to search this foreigner's car, and you might be able to see where this is going.

Do you remember how small volkswagen beetles were? They had the motor in the back, the trunk in the front.

It was in that moment when he was stopped by the state police of Yugoslavia at the border and when they demanded to search his car, that for the first time, Brother Andrew prayed what he would later call the prayer of God's smuggler. Here's the prayer of God's smuggler. Lord, in my luggage, I. I have scripture I want to take to your children. While you were on earth, you made blind eyes see.

Now I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things you do not want them to see. When those guards went up and opened that front trunk and moved Andrew's suitcase out of the way, underneath it was boxes and boxes of bibles, Andrew saw them move his suitcase out of the way. And after that short search, with the boxes of bibles in plain sight, for some reason, the police shut the trunk and they let him through the border. And for the next 50 days, Brother Andrew preached the gospel and brought greetings to secret churches all over Yugoslavia.

Hundreds came to Jesus, and all the bibles were delivered to believers in as many villages as possible until there were none left. And that started a world changing missionary organization. Brother Andrew died in 2022, the age of 90. Something. I told you that story because I want you to see what it's like when the apostle Paul is going to write in a verse of ours in just a moment, act like men, because that's what Brother Andrew and so many other faithful believers have done by trusting God and letting him do it and not manipulating it for himself.

And so. Hey, do you like that story? Should I tell it in the second service? Okay, I will. Because you said now our verse, one corinthians 1613.

Watch. Stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Father, I pray that these four commands, these four holy instructions, would so pierce our hearts, would so grasp our imaginations, would so change the course of our next week, that we'd never be the same. Holy Spirit, do what my study can't. In Jesus name, amen.

Those four commands, watch. Stand fast, be brave, be strong. Those are what a general might say to his troops on the eve of the battle, and it's what Paul wrote to the corinthian church at the end of his letter to emphasize everything he had said previously. I call them four ways to walk in godliness, and I want to explain them to you in the rest of this message. The first command is watch.

I summarize that command by this it means, know what is happening. Watch, be alert, be on your guard. Be vigilant. Have awareness. Like the sons of Issachar in a little known verse in one chronicles, chapter twelve, verse 32, in this table of the families of the children of God, we run across this diamond in the rough.

The sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. These are the kind of men our church must have, men who watch, men who are on alert, men who know what's happening, men who understand the culture around us and know church. Here's how we walk in wisdom. Here's how we lead our families. Here's how we treat our wives in a culture that is abandoning marriage.

Here's how we parent our children in a world that has released their children and surrendered them to the screens. Watch, by the way, that word watch find it all over your bible. You find it on the lips of Jesus perhaps more than anybody else. It's often used for looking intently for Jesus to return to earth. By the way, these four commands in one corinthians 1613 offset actions that the church can't have.

It offsets attitudes that the church can't adopt. And so what watch offsets is being careless, living life without any purpose, going, you know what? I've already been saved, already been baptized, going to heaven when I die. Now I can just do whatever comes naturally and whatever comes conveniently. I can live carelessly because Jesus is doing it all.

I'm going to heaven. No, the same Jesus that purchased your salvation and perfectly saved you is the one who says watch. He's the one who says, be aware. And so we read in Matthew 20 513, watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the son of man is coming. Jesus says, watch for my return.

And I fear that if the church is like me, I often forget and will live an entire week or a month and never think of the fact that not only am I going to heaven when I die, but Jesus is coming to get me. If I don't die first, it could be today. What if we lived each day reminding ourselves that our lord could return at any moment?

How would our priorities change? How differently would we respond to others, whether they be friend or enemy, if we thought Jesus will be here at 230 today?

Watch. God's men know what is happening and they remain alert. That's the first way to walk in godliness. Watch number two. I just took this straight from the verse because I can't improve on it.

Stand fast in the faith.

And by the way, it's the faith. It's not stand fast in your faith. Your English, you may have an english translation that says stand fast in your faith. And that is not a translation. That's an addition to the text.

The text has a definite article. There is something called the faith.

Stand fast in the faith. It is a specific teaching that's necessary to have a legitimate claim of being a Christian. There's a specific doctrine. There are just some things you have to believe about God and the Lord that if you don't, you don't know him and you can't call yourself one of his children or one of his servants. There's the faith and there are several summaries of it in your Bible.

I'm going to show you one and explain it to you quickly. So first, Timothy 316. One Timothy 316 is one of the earliest summaries of key critical doctrine that Christians said, this you must believe to be one of us. You ready? If you ready, say yes.

Here's the verse. One Timothy 316. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in the glory. Actually, the word God's not in the text is the word who. And in the context, the word who refers to Jesus, who is also God.

Yes. So here's a text. Here's a summary statement that the early church said these things. You must believe about Jesus if you want to credibly say to others that you belong to Jesus. First you have to believe that Jesus was manifested in the flesh.

We call that the doctrine of the incarnation you have to believe that God became a man. Do you believe that? You have to believe that he became a man without sin, that he was born of a virgin. All of that is included in the doctrine of the incarnation. Secondly, justified in the spirit.

There's a small debate about this. It's irrelevant to what we're talking about today. But what does the word justified mean by the spirit? Does it mean vindicated? Does it mean sustained?

It means all of those. And I'm trying to think, when was Jesus vindicated and sustained by the spirit? Early in the gospel message. And the answer is at the temptation in the wilderness. Because if you go look at the story of where Jesus goes one on one against the devil and overcomes all of his temptings with the written word of God.

That story begins this way. He was led by the spirit into the desert. So he's justified in the spirit. The spirit says, devil try to get the Son and the Son crushes him in a great victory, justifying him in the spirit seen by angels. Or better yet, look at me, marveled at by angels.

Do you remember the Christmas story the angelic choir sang out in the countryside in front of the shepherds? Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. And we even have a verse later in the New Testament that says of these gospel truths where God comes to earth as a man and dies on the cross to save sinners. The verse says, angels long to look into these things. Marveled at by angels.

That's a doctrine of adoration. Next preached among the Gentiles, you can take preached among the Gentiles and reword it to say declared to sinners. This is the gospel going to those that the Bible, those who grew up in Bible times would say would never be worthy to hear it. This is the great doctrine of proclamation. Paul writes in Romans, how can they believe unless someone preaches to them?

Do you realize today that if you are a Christian where you sit, it's because Jesus came to you by someone declaring to you the gospel, preaching, heralding, delivering the gospel to you believed on in the world? You know Jesus message is received. You know it's not. It's not struggling at all when Jesus is declared in the world and the Holy Spirit opens up hearts the way he did lydia in acts chapter 16. And people believe.

It's not like God's up in heaven going, man, I need to tune up my gospel message. I need gospel 2.0 because 1.0 is obsolete. Oh no. The gospel was first preached in Genesis, chapter three. Verse 15.

And it's just as effective today as it was back then. Believed on in the world. It's the doctrine of salvation. And then lastly, received up in the glory, Jesus returned to his father in acts, chapter one. This is the great doctrine of the ascension.

You see, our God walked out of a tomb, and then he went to heaven. It's important stand fast in the faith. You know what men must do to act like men, steadfast in the truth. You, man, let me ask you a question. Are you a church man?

Bill Jones gave a great offering devotion today, did he not? Was that not great? I thought it was. And look, I've been talking to Bill for the last few years. I've been watching his life.

He's actually been ministering to me, and he'll call me and say, pastor, you walking with God, you're loving your wife, you leading your children, what's your personal life like? And I'll just open up to him. He and I have that kind of relationship. And I remember one day going, man, of all the churches that I've been on staff at, there's always godly men that are just good churchmen, guys that walk with the Lord. They don't need a title, they don't need a position, they just do it.

And because they do it, churches give them titles and positions. I said, bill, for the rest of your life, you have to promise me that you're going to walk with God, because right now and in the future, you're one of those good churchmen. My brothers and my sisters and especially my brothers, we need you to be that stand fast in the faith.

Number three, the verse says, be brave. It's literally, act like men, but it's not about gender. Here, be brave means be a man of courage. Act with maturity. Play the role of an adult, not a child.

Act like men. When Paul told the Corinthians this, you know what he meant. He meant, make sure there's some spiritual grownups in your church, and make sure that it's not just the ones you pay to be spiritual. We need you to grow up out of your spiritual infancy. We need you to make progress.

Paul writes to this church, act like men, not children. Don't give yourself permission to be a spiritual infant from now until you die or till Jesus returns. Little babies are cute. Yes, when they're in diapers and we have to rock them and do everything for them, but when they're 14 years old and they're still. And they're still in diapers and you have to rock them that something's wrong, something is amiss.

And I look and I go, our church can't be this anymore. We can't be a nursery of baby christians. We hear the New Testament tell us, act like men, it offsets being childish. By the way, stand fast in the faith. Offsets being inconsistent.

Act like men, offsets being childish. One more verse on this point. First Corinthians 1311. Paul writes in that same letter, when I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.

I'm going to let the Holy Spirit do his work and not just begin to list a word bank of what possible childish things that could be in your life that you should put away. But if you'll listen to the voice of God, he'll tell you, and it might be a little bit painful for all of us. So, number one, know what's happening. Watch. Number two, stand fast in the faith.

Number three, act like men. And finally today, maybe most importantly, the word is be strong. It's the word for power. Live in power.

I want to talk to you about the power of God for a minute, because I'm on a pursuit of it. I'm on a quest. I'm on a mission that my christian faith be more than academic. I am. I'm on a journey to make sure that God is more than a classroom study for me.

I want to walk in the power of the living God, the way I read about in the scriptures. Is it just me? Anybody else want to? Let me talk to you about living in power. Be strong.

In fact, it's passive. It's be made strong. This command that Paul writes to them says, let God do what only God can do for you. Let him make you strong. In other words, you can't churn this up.

You can't practice this. You can't do this by willpower. It's not willpower. It's God's power. What you do is you surrender and you say, God, I want to live and walk in the power of your spirit, not so I can build my brand, not so I can be a celebrity Christian, not so I can be even somebody in my own church.

But, Lord, so that you can receive glory and sinners can receive salvation. I want your power. Live in power. It offsets being ineffective. And I wonder if you ever felt like your christian life is just.

It's just not working. It's ineffective. It doesn't help me, it doesn't help anybody else? Let me give you my favorite definition for the power of God that I've ever read, and it's by one of my favorite authors named Jack. Here's what Jack said after his study.

He said, here's what power is. It's the supernatural ability to make wrong things right. This is the power of God, the supernatural ability to make wrong things right. And all you have to do is begin to take inventory or a survey of the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Let me tell you some of the wrong things that Jesus makes right in his ministry.

He makes right the wrong thing of a cold heart. If this sermon hasn't interested you at all, if the songs we sing, we sang earlier, and the truth about Jesus does nothing for you, if actually you're like, could you hurry up and end this? I think you're at your last point. Could you just get it over with? I've got things to do.

You have a cold heart before God. Your priorities are reversed, and you don't care about things that you should be caring about. And I want you to know that you should have no fear, because Jesus power fixes this. Because it doesn't matter how cold your heart is to God right now. It wasn't as cold as Saul of Tarsus's heart was before God.

And in acts chapter nine, as he was on a campaign to round up christians of the very first church to imprison them and see to their deaths, Jesus came to the, to Saul of Tarsus, and he met him there on the road to Damascus, and he changed that cold heart. And now this letter that we're reading in our bibles, he wrote that he went from being a God hater to the greatest disciple maker other than Jesus, who's ever lived, because God takes wrong things and he makes them right by his power. And he changed that cold heart. And if he did it for Paul, he can do it for you. You know what else he can do?

He can get you out of moral bondage. You may have some terrible secret sins. There's some ones that if just the folks that you came to church with that they found out, you'd have a difficult time coping this next week. Moral bondage. And I reminded of Luke chapter seven.

In Luke chapter seven, a lady who had a terrible reputation in her town crashed a Pharisees house party that Jesus was invited to. And she began to wash Jesus feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. And the owner of the home rebuked her, and Jesus rebuked him right back. And he says, no, she loves me a whole lot because she has been forgiven a whole lot. And Jesus redeemed her and delivered her from her moral bondage.

And there's nothing you've done in your life. There is no darkness. There is no shadow. There is no cringe. There is no thing that there is no regret that you have now that Jesus can't turn around.

There is the power of God available to you. He makes wrong things right. I got a bunch of these. What if you're addicted? What if there's substance abuse that you just can't get past?

First Corinthians, chapter six, verse nine is a verse for you about the power of God. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, those are sexual sinners, nor idolaters. Those are false God worshipers, nor adulterers.

Those are those who haven't been faithful to their spouses in their marriage. Nor homosexuals. You know what that is? Nor sodomites. Same thing.

Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards. There's the addiction. Nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And if the verse ended there, the news would be bad. But the verse ends in verse eleven.

And such were some of you. Past tense. Delivered. Set free, you were washed, you were sanctified. Set, made holy, you were justified, saved in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God.

He makes wrong things right. What if your body's sick? What if you have a deformity? Before the service, a young man was telling me about how his left eye doesn't work right and he is looking for these treatments that he has and a special contact. And I said to him, well, what if you just get prayer?

What if God heals your eye? All you got to do is. I'm not going to read it right now because I'm running out of time. You can go read Matthew, chapter 15, verses 29 to 31. They brought their sick and they're deformed.

And those that were ill, and Jesus healed all of them, because the power of God that the apostle Paul says that we live in, well, those are enough of the examples. I got a lot more. Let me just say to you that many church buildings that I've been in today are made for talk. They're not made for power.

They become lecture halls, not healing places. Lecture halls produce critics. Healing places transform lives. That's why we don't put the front row right here at our church. We put it back there so that there's room up here for when we come and pray for each other and ask for the power of God to begin to reverse some of these things we've talked about.

Does that make sense? Listen, you need my preaching, but you need so much more than my preaching. You need the power of God working in the prayers and the hands of the normal saints in this room, trusting that God has gifted them and burdened them with this love that he has so that it can help you. And I'm bound and determined that our church is not going to be a lecture hall. It's going to be a healing place.

And while there's power of God in preaching, there's also power of God in the prayers of the saints. Can I tell you? We need both.

I think that's enough preaching for you today. I don't even know how to land this plane. I'm just going to let God do with his scriptures the way he did it. I'd get an f at seminary by ending my sermon like this. But maybe God will use it for you, because I want to do all four of those things and walk in godliness.

I think you do, too. Let's bow for prayer. Prayer, father, let us all act like men.

Let us walk in your power for the glory of Jesus alone. The faith filled church said, amen.

All right. As you're thinking through the scripture you heard and the challenge you heard.