By All Means

Introduction

Good evening. Glad you came back. You never know if the reaction is going to be, oh. You’re either very patient or very committed. Let me mention a couple of other things that I didn’t mention this morning. I was kind of teasing Tony a little bit, but we really had a great meeting with Tony. And I know that you appreciate him and the preaching that he does, the work that he does in the Lord’s cause, and we really enjoyed our meeting with him. He helped us in so many ways. And I also want to say that just as I know that Sherry was a great asset to him being there, that I’m very thankful that my daughter that my wife Gina. She’s so young, I forget. My wife, Gina able to be with me.

That’s a great encouragement to me. And of course, I don’t know how well it would have gone over if I’d have gone to Texas, where we have four grandchildren and three on the way, and I had not brought her. I might have been in really hot water, but we’re we’re certainly glad that she can be with us. I want to you think about this title. I know a lot of you have a lot of different ideas. What is that all about? What is this phrase by all means? It’s actually a phrase that we find in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 9. It’s a phrase that Paul uses as he’s reflecting on the work that he does, and he says this as part of the attitude that he had in his work.

And I think most of us, if we think about the life of the Apostle Paul, we see someone who was indeed extremely committed to the Lord’s cause. We see somebody who used every opportunity that he had. One of my favorite things to do, and I have done a sermon along this line, but just to just to go through the life of Paul, as he was in various situations and who he was willing to take time to try to reach with the gospel of Christ. You know, he didn’t just talk in audiences to other Christians. He didn’t just go out into the synagogues and try to get into Bible discussions. You know, he converted a jailer. He was trying to convert the king who had him on trial.

1. That I May By All Means Save Some

In fact, on many occasions, the governors and others that were had him on trial, he didn’t just try to get off the hook. He used it as an opportunity to try to reach them with the gospel. And so in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 in verse 23, he uses this phrase. He says in verse 23, I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become partaker of it. And I just I just gave you the wrong verse there, didn’t I? And I read the wrong verse. Verse 22, I’m sorry. Verse 22, to the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I’ve become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some. And then he says, I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

That was his attitude. Whatever it takes, by all means, I’m going to find some way to try to reach people with the gospel, because he saw how significant it was. And if you back up to some of the previous verses, you see that he says he made himself a slave that I may win more. If you go back to verse, if you go all the way back to verse 17 and following, he says, I became as a Jew that I might win Jews. I became as under the law that I might win those as under the law. I became as without law that I might win those without law. I became weak that I may win the weak. Now, he goes into some explanation about what each one of these things means.

You know, you can look at the examples as he went into places like Athens. He could have gone into Athens where he found all of these idols, and he could have said, You idolaters are all going to hell if you don’t repent. Now, eventually he got around to that. But what he started with was, I perceive that you’re very religious people. And I found this inscription to an unknown God. And I’m going to tell you about that God that you don’t know. He went out of his way not to be offensive to the Jews and the customs that they had when he was around them. He wanted to find whatever way he could. He used the passages from the Old Testament and the prophecies to lead them to Christ.

He used the times that people would find themselves in the most vulnerable situations. He himself was in very vulnerable situations in order to gain those to win them over. And as we think about this winning attitude, did you notice that? How he used that phrase? This is in the American Standard, New American Standard Version, that I may win more, that I might win the Jews, that it might win those under the law, that I might win those without the law, that I might win with the weak, that I might win the weak. All these different phrases. He’s talking about winning them. And then, if we pick up in verse 23, and he says, I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games, exercises, self-control and all things, then they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. Now I’ve used this passage many times in talking about how important it is that we keep our eye on the prize and that we think about our own soul, and we think about whatever it is that we may need to give up that’s worth it, to buffet our bodies, to restrict ourselves, to exercise self-control.

And I have to admit that in many ways I was guilty of not look fitting this into the context. I think all of those things are true. And it certainly applies that way. But all the examples that he just gave in this whole chapter, the winning that he was talking about doing was not as much his own soul, even though that was certainly part of it, but he’s talking about exercising self-control, disciplining his body. What was he focused on winning? Souls. That’s what he just talked about, making changes in his own think-so’s or his own tendencies. He went against things that might be his natural inclinations because he wanted to win souls. He did things that were not necessarily comfortable because he wanted to win souls.

2. We Need to Be a Living Sacrifice

He wanted to make sure that he did, he used every opportunity that he could. He realized how vital it was that people hear the gospel of Christ. And he went out of his way to carry out that very thing. I want us to think about that in regard to our own selves, because God reminds us of how that we are supposed to be a living sacrifice. Turn, if you will, over to Romans, the 12th chapter. In Romans chapter 12, we’re going to notice this passage. I think most of you are familiar with it. Where he says, Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

That’s not just something God says not. Now, you apostles, I want you to be a living sacrifice. The rest of you Christians, don’t worry about it. That’s not just something God says, you elders, I want you elders to be self-sacrificing, everybody else don’t worry about it. That’s not just for the preachers to say, preachers, it’s for you to be self-sacrificing, or just for the deacons to say, yes, must be self-sacrificing. God is telling all of us, we need to be a living sacrifice. In other words, we need to consider ourselves to be wholly devoted to God and what his will is. In Philippians chapter 2, in Philippians chapter 2, we’re reminded about how important it is that we look to the needs of others and we’re given this example of Jesus Christ Himself in what he did.

He starts off with this passage, and he says, Therefore, if there’s any encouragement in Christ, if there’s any consolation of love, if there’s any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves. Again, I want you to just think about Paul for a minute. And what he was thinking, as he’s, as he’s giving up things, we’re going to talk a little bit more about his specific life and some of the things that he changed in his life because of the commitment he had to helping other people go to heaven.

But it’s also something that we should be looking at ourselves and saying, What I’m doing, am I thinking more about my needs, or am I thinking more about the needs of others? He says, Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But emptying himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, being in fashion as being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. This sacrifice of Jesus, what he did for us, in that he why was he doing it?

Why was Jesus doing that? Why? Why did Jesus go through what he did? Did he do that because he was wanting to just have more glory and more power and more appreciation? He was existing in the form of God, his deity. He didn’t do that because of what he needed, he did that because of what you needed. We’re supposed to be his followers. We’re supposed to be following him. And then as we think about what he gave up, what he gave up for me. What he gave up for you. There should be in our own lives a willingness and a desire to reach out to other people in the same way and think about what it is that we need to do to help them get to heaven.

3. Personal Things That Paul Gave Up

Not just strangers, not just people that are in foreign places, not just people that we go out and meet on the street, but the people we meet from day to day, the people that we meet together with. We’re here to help each other get to heaven. What are the things that we can do that are going to help us along that line? Paul in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 8 says this more than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. With Paul, these are not just words. This is reality. I want you to go back and notice some of the things in the early part of 1 Corinthians chapter 9, that Paul talks about that he gave up.

We think about, okay, he’s out there, he’s preaching, he’s being persecuted. Some of that is coming on himself just because he’s speaking the word and people are doing things to him. But there were personal things that he gave up. He starts off the book of the chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 9. He says, Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? He goes on down and says in verse 5, verse 4 do not do we not have a right to eat and drink? Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?

When Paul was in Corinth, Paul didn’t take any support from Corinth. And that is a unique thing because on a little bit further down he mentions specifically he had the right to take support from them. He had, and this was part of God’s design. They that preach the gospel should live of the gospel, verse 14. But at the same time, Paul didn’t take support from Corinth. And it wasn’t because Corinth couldn’t afford it. Corinth was probably one of the wealthiest areas that Paul went to preach. Instead, he was taking support from Philippi and Thessalonica, and he was working with his own hands to provide for them. And there can be some, there may be some question about how effective it was, but Paul did not want to make any charge to them for the gospel.

I think part of the reason for that was this. I think it’s that everybody else that came to Corinth was coming there to make a buck. They were there to make money. That was the focus of their lives, and Paul came there and said, I don’t want your money. I just want to, I just want to teach you the gospel of Christ. And he did that, not because he didn’t have the right to take support, but because he was more focused on what do I need to do to take down whatever obstacle stands between you and God. He didn’t want any kind of other offense that might be there. So when he gets to these other passages a little bit later down, when he’s talking about, I became a Jew to a Jew and a Greek to a Greek, I became weak to the weak.

4. Artificial Barriers Between People

And he talks about all these things that he did that by all means I might save some. It’s not just words. He’s saying, I went out of my way beyond what it was my right to do, beyond what was my comfort zone to do, because my main focus is how can I reach you with the gospel? You know, what if our attitude was the same way? What if we think in terms of not what do I have a right to do or what do I have to do, but I think, what is it that I can do? How can I reach somebody with the gospel of Christ? Sometimes we make artificial barriers between people that we won’t talk to about the gospel. As I mentioned, Paul talks to the he talked to his judges, he talked to kings, he talked to governors, he talked to the jailer, he talked to his guards, he saw souls with everybody that he came in contact with.

But we haven’t we have people sometimes we automatically think they wouldn’t be interested in that. Maybe because of the kind of life that they’re living, maybe because we think they’re too important. For example, would you think about talking to your doctor about the gospel of Christ? Would you think about talking to somebody that’s got you on trial, like a judge? I have a I actually have a landlord who’s whose wife, I guess she’s my landlady, but I do mostly deal with him. But she’s a judge. You know? So this kind of hits home here. Am I going to talk to this judge about the gospel? We had an opportunity, Gene and I, one time, to talk to a guy that was running for U.S. Congress in East Texas.

We had him in our home and we had some discussions with him. You know, and I thought, am I really doing this? What if this guy makes it to Congress? You know, we don’t, we shouldn’t look at people that way. We shouldn’t say, oh, this person is too important. And we shouldn’t, on the other end, say, oh, this person is too messed up with drugs. They’re too messed up because they’re homeless. What about the guy that’s standing out there with a cardboard sign? Do we think about talking to him about the gospel of Christ? There are, there’s one thing that the town of Prescott is known for. It is considered the rehabilitation center of the Southwest. There are more drug rehab, drug and alcohol rehab facilities in the town, and the people come there from all over.

And I will say, I’ve got right now a study one night a week with about ten of these guys. And I never know what’s going to fully happen with them. I don’t know. When I first moved there in the first few months, we baptized about ten of them. And then some of them, they disappear, they go back to the home, the town that they came from. You hope you planted enough seed. You hope you helped to get them started on that road. You don’t really know. But I will say this. Just in talking with them, in many cases, I see men who are broken. And they’ve reached a point that they want to make a change in their life. And they’re much like some of the people that Jesus dealt with.

As he was, as he was talking to the ones that everybody else knows, oh, yeah, that’s the sinners. And I’ve always found that kind of interesting, isn’t it? Those are the sinners. The religious people today didn’t see themselves in that way. They didn’t see the need that they really had. They couldn’t realize how destitute they were. And it was those who really knew where they stood that were looking for answers. What I’m really wanting us to all realize is that there are people out there that need to hear the gospel. And we have the opportunity to make that change. What if there’s something that you can change that would make a difference in winning souls? Would you be willing to do that? If there’s something that I need to change that will help me win souls, will I change that?

Like Paul did, like what Jesus did in coming to the earth and living as a man? We have to realize that we really can influence the people we come in contact with. In fact, you’re already influencing people in one way or another. You’re either influencing them for good or you’re influencing them for bad. There are some people that may be that you’re the only real Christian that they know. What if that is? What if you are the only real Christian that somebody you come in contact with, you’re the only one that they really know? What’s their impression of a Christian? And how important not only is Christ seen to be by them in your life, how important are they and their soul to you? Well, this is not working.

5. How Are You Affecting the Visitors?

Oh, I’m not hitting the right button. What about visitors? What about visitors that come in? I had a friend he always called the visitors that would come into the building low-hanging fruit. Low hanging fruit. You know, you think about it. You’re doing all these things and try to get somebody to come. And let’s but let’s face it, most conversions don’t take place by somebody coming into the assembly. That usually takes place because somebody sits down and studies with them. But nevertheless, that impression that they get when they first come in can have a tremendous impact. And for us personally, as we think about, how am I? Think about this with yourself. Not the group as a whole. How are you affecting the visitors that come in the door?

I don’t know if we have any visitors here tonight. I hope you feel welcome. But I mainly am talking about those that are members of this congregation. Or if you’re here and you’re visiting from another congregation, and think about the impact that you have on the visitors where you are.

That’s really bizarre. And you know, the fact that you have people that are friendly, that welcome people here is an asset that you need to treasure. But it’s also something that we should all be involved in. It should be that we’re all welcoming those that come in. We had a I’m going to tell you this story about this man that did come in. He moved to the presence. He just wanted to, as they say, he just wanted to find a church home. And he was a he was a Lutheran. He was raised a Lutheran. And so he came in and he was welcomed, very friendly, and I was gone. I happened to be gone when he got there. And so they told me, well, I’m going to be this, he’s going to be back.

And I got back, and he, because he felt so welcome there, he said, I really want to be a part of this church. He didn’t know anything about the Bible. He didn’t know anything about what it really was to be a Christian. And we started studying together, and in a short time he was baptized, and he is just soaking things up like a sponge. He’s 58 years old, kind of a new start for his life. It’s just a marvelous thing. That doesn’t happen very often. But what if he had come in that door and everybody just ignored him? What do you think would have happened? I know what we’ll say. We’ll say, well, it’s his fault. He should be seeking the truth. He’s the one that needs to be served.

It’s really up to him. It’s his problem. But the fact is that did have an impact on him because people showed an interest in him. They were interested in his well-being. What about my brethren? How am I? And asking yourself this, how am I influencing my brethren? Because winning souls is not just about getting somebody to the water of baptism. Winning souls is about keeping people encouraged, keeping people devoted, keeping people with those that they are going to be able to trust and put their confidence in. You know, there’s really three types of visitors that come in the door. You have non-Christians, you have Christians visiting from out of town, and you have Christians looking for a church home. Now, which one of these do we need to make feel welcome?

That’s right. All of them. They all need to feel welcome. Not because we’re just trying to do a sales job, but because we should be genuinely interested in other people and their well-being.

That when we do have people, as our good brother Dan Shipley once said, if you have people, you have problems. We’re going to have people have problems. Everybody comes with a little baggage. But we still should be interested enough in people’s well-being that we want to be there for them. We want to take an interest in them, and we should make them feel welcome. You know, there’s a phrase that’s used in the Bible many times, the phrase receive one another. You think about the first century church. You think about how different many of them were. Jews and Gentiles. That they needed to receive one another. They needed to be willing to show this interest in each other. And along with that, we can’t we just have some very basic things, you know.

This may seem insignificant, but why is it that sometimes we’re supposed to be the happiest people on earth and we look like we just ate a bucket of lemons. You know? I don’t know. Maybe we got things on our mind. But you know, that’s just a simple thing. You know, if you greet somebody, I’m glad you’re here. Instead of, hey, I’m really glad you’re here. I’m really glad to see you. I mean, that really does say something. We need to show an interest in other people’s things. What’s going on in their life? Step outside of ourselves. Some people say, I don’t know what to say. Well, just ask them how they’re doing. Ask them where they’re from. Ask them what brings them to this area.

Let them do the talking. There’s a story, and some of you might be aware of a man by the name of Dale Carnegie. He wrote some books that had to do with personal relationships and stuff, and he talked about how he went into this, I don’t remember what he was selling one time. He went in and he started talking to this guy, and he got the guy talking about his own life. And he hardly said three words. And the guy later said, Man, we’ve had this great conversation. And you know, sometimes we I don’t know why, we think we’ve got to tell us, we’ve got to be the one doing all the talking. Sometimes we just need to show an interest in people’s lives.

And here’s the other thing to that. From a from a personal evangelism standpoint, if you’ve done much try, if you’ve done much work teaching other people, you’ll realize that sometimes you sit down and you start teaching and you assume some things, and then you realize I’m wasting my time. I thought I finally just listened a little more. I mean, let me tell you what I usually do when I sit down and study with somebody. First thing is I start asking them some questions. I ask them some questions like, do you believe you’re saved? And so they tell me, Well, yes, I believe I was saved when I was saved. Well, tell me about your salvation. And I and I don’t I don’t stop and interrupt them with every little thing that comes up.

I listen and I write it down and I make a note of what things we’re going to get back to later. Especially when they tell me about how they were saved, that’s very different than what the Bible teaches. For example, we know that salvation doesn’t occur before someone is baptized into Christ. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. That we were saved, we repent and are baptized for the remission of sins. Yet so many people believe that salvation is something that occurs at the moment of acceptance of some facts about Christ and about God. And so when somebody says, then I write it down, and then later, when we’re studying about baptism, I’ve had people saying, Oh, yeah, that’s why I was baptized.

And I’ve already written this down. It says, wait a minute, you told me you were baptized, you were baptized after you were saved. But if I didn’t listen, I wouldn’t get that first. And I learned that the hard way because I had somebody when I was studying with them, and then they I know what they told me, but I didn’t really make the point of it. And then later we talked about it, and he said, Oh, yeah, that’s why I was baptized. I was I was baptized for the remission of sins. I was that’s when I was saved. And I still didn’t know how to, I didn’t know how to reach the guy because he was convinced, even though the information came after the act, I didn’t, I didn’t listen well enough at the beginning.

Sometimes I’ve spent time arguing about things I didn’t even need to argue about. Because I didn’t listen enough. We don’t have to stop and refute everything we hear. We can have time to get through that. We need to show interest in where people are, not only in their lives, but in especially their spiritual lives. What about follow-up? I don’t even know what you do here for follow-up on visitors. I find it is one of those recurring problems that brethren have. Maybe you are extremely good at it. I hope you are. Because as my friend said, that’s low-hanging fruit. These are people you work and work and try to get people in. Here’s somebody that’s come in the door. Follow up with them. Call them, send them cards.

Doesn’t that mean a lot to you? Even if it’s just you were out of town and you visited somewhere and you get a card from them. Does that mean anything to you? Absolutely. It does to me. I appreciate that. That means they appreciated me being there. It means that you’re valuable to some people. Sometimes we just think, well, you know, I’m just too shy to do that. I understand shyness. I understand that being shy is something that people deal with. But when our shyness is interfering with us being able to reach other people and showing a little bit of concern for them, what are we really thinking about? We’re thinking about how we are. We’re thinking about ourselves. And that kind of shyness is really selfish.

We need to get past that and say, people’s souls are too important. By all means, whatever it takes, I’m going to do what I can to encourage other people. And we can’t just always be thinking that’s somebody else’s job. It’s all of our job. It’s what all of us need to do. To do what we can to encourage other people in following Christ. We need to do what we can to talk to friends, co-workers, fellow students. And there is a there’s a valuable thing in using teamwork. Let me mention something to you that happened a number of years ago, and this was kind of my introduction to some people working together. Sean and DeWitt’s mother never met a stranger. What I mean by that is she would talk to anybody.

And when I went to Corrigan and I was 22 years old and I was preaching there, she was meeting all these people and she was talking to them about getting some Bible studies going with them. And then she came to me, her and Tom came to me and said, We need somebody, you know. She said, I don’t know what to do. She said, I’ve got these people, I want to tell them everything. And she said, I can introduce them, but I kind of don’t know where to start. I said, bring them to me. And in that four years that we were there in Corrigan, we had 37 baptisms. In that little congregation, it was about 35, I think, the whole congregation was when I moved there.

The other part of it is that Tom, who was a highway patrolman who we all know has a certain quota to make, and then they’re just on the clock, right? There’s really some truth to that, okay? He had to get so many tickets, and then he just had to stay on the clock. And while he was doing that, he would go around and visit the people I was studying with. And he’d just have coffee with them, and he’d get some things and they’d come back and say, Hey, you might want to touch on this subject. Hey, there might be an interest here. Here’s like this teamwork. You know? Charlotte was making the contact, and I’d sit down and study with them, and Tom would be the one to follow up, and that follow-up that goes in regard to personal evangelism is so important because the thing that gets people to hang on is the connections that they make with other people.

And you know, there’s only so many. There’s only so many people you can really keep close contact with. I can’t remember. Paul, do you remember who it was that came and did that personal evangelism thing for us in Bulverdi?

No, it was a it was somebody else before Bubba came out there. I can’t remember what his name was right now. I’ll think of it later and then I’ll kick myself. He made this comment. He said, How many of you need more friends? And all these hands went up, you know? And he said, I don’t. He said, I have a hard time keeping up with the friends that I already have. Do you realize that making friends and being a friend to a new convert is a great asset? That’s something you can do? Because it’s all about winning souls. It’s all about getting people to heaven. Do what you can. Be the one that’s making that connection with them. Be the one that’s there for them when they got doubts, when they’re weak, when they’re struggling.

6. We Need to Have Patience

That’s something you can do. And that’s what we see happening with Paul. That’s what we see happening in the early church. And being patient. You know, showing patience in realizing that somebody you’re studying with or somebody you’re working with, they’re going to still have problems. They’re going to still struggle with sin. And they’re not going to learn everything you know in five minutes. Sometimes we think, oh, I want them to know everything I know in the first time I sit down and study with them. That’s not fair, is it?

We need to have patience. And that means sometimes, because I hear people say this all the time, well, I’m just not a very patient person. Well, that gets back to that, doesn’t that whole concept, doesn’t it? That we say, I’m going to sacrifice what’s my natural tendencies because I care about people and I’m going to bear with them, and I’m going to be long suffering like God wants me to do. Ephesians chapter 4 talks about the importance of congregational harmony, the way that we get along together. And it’s obvious that some of the early Christians had problems with this because of their different backgrounds. And if you understand a little bit about that, it’s not hard to see that was the case. And they still have the same problems today.

We think people think like we do, and we expect people to react like we do, or maybe we’re hoping they don’t react like we do. But he says this in verse 1 of Ephesians chapter 4. He says, Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. That’s going to take some self-sacrificing on our part. That’s going to take us being willing to put up with some things and deal with some things. Philippians chapter 2, we read a moment ago, that not only in regard to what we’re doing to reach the lost, but what we’re doing with each other.

That we look for each other’s needs rather than our own. And in the 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and I’m not going to read all of this, but if you’ll just remember the example of the church being like a body, and he describes that the body that we’re living in has all these different things that are that we functions that we have, and there’s ways that we have differences of what we have strengths in and various things are just like the parts of the body. You know, that the eye is a good at being an eye. It’s good at seeing, but it doesn’t make a very good ear. Although some people have to use it that way, but it’s never as good as the real ear is.

And hands are really good at what they do, but if we had to walk around on them all day and use them for feet, they wouldn’t work very well that way. Each of us have things that we’re good at. We don’t need to be jealous of those who are good at things that we’re not good at. And we don’t need to start thinking, well, I’m of no value because I can’t do what somebody else can do, either because I don’t have the ability or the opportunity. As we think about a body working together and being what it ought to be, this should be, and he ends that he ends that as he’s talking about this in verse 22. On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

And those members of the body which we deem less honorable, and these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need, but God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care one for another. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.

When there are suffering that they’re going through.

Conclusion

That we should be having the attitude, I’m going to do whatever it takes, not only to go to heaven. Whatever I need to change, whatever I need to give up, whatever I don’t have, it’s worth it, not only for myself, but for others as well. Don’t let anything or anyone stand in your way of that price. Should we have that attitude? Should we have that whatever it takes attitude? By all means. By all means. So where do you stand this evening? Sometimes people that need to make changes in their life have let embarrassment, fears, doubts, other things stand in their way. Don’t let those things stand between you and God. If your life isn’t right with God, make use of this opportunity. Come believing in him, repenting of those things against his will, confess your faith in him.

Be buried in baptism for the remission of sins and raised to walk in newness of life. If you’ve begun that road and wandered away, don’t let anything keep you from being right with him. If we can help you in any way, come forward as we stand and all as we sing.