Turn with me in your Bibles to
Hebrews chapter 13. Coming close to the end. Of Hebrews
and by God's grace, he's laid upon my heart to go to Galatians
next so. If you'd like to go ahead and
start reading Galatians, that's where we'll be heading next. Lord willing. Hebrews chapter 13 this morning.
As the apostle comes to his closing thoughts, he gives God's people
four exhortations that he says he is pleased with. He says these
sacrifices God is well pleased with, four of them. First is
praise and thanksgiving. The second one is communication.
The third one is obedience. And the fourth one is prayer.
And I hope to look at all of those this morning. We'll see
that the four of these, if the Lord be our teacher, the motivation
behind them, the reason that the Lord's people
do this is not because of a law that's given. No, the law of
the Lord is written on the heart. It's by love, love for the brethren
and love unto him. That's the motivation of the
believer. It's no longer law that we serve. It's love. It's
love. Galatians 5, 6 says, for in Jesus
Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision.
but faith which worketh by love. Faith which worketh by love.
Love is the believer's motivation to serve God. That's our motivation. We're motivated by love. What
brought you here this morning? Well, I wanted to worship him.
I wanted to see his face. Why? Well, I love him because
he first loved me. I need to hear the good news
about how Christ saved sinners, how he saved his people. I need
to hear this good news. You hear about the love that
was shown forth on Calvary's cross. I need to hear one more
time, I need to hear. If the Lord would be our teacher,
if our Lord would be our teacher this morning, I hope we can see
his face. Let's read this text here, Hebrews
13, 15 through 19, verses 15 through 19. And I'm going to go ahead and
tell you the title is all by him because the first two words
are the reason for everything that follows by him. Do you see those two words in
verse 15 by him? And as I was studying this, trying
to get. the message, trying to acquire
the message, I was looking at all the other words, and those
two little words kept eluding me until closer to the end, and
how glorious it was when I finally got to see him and say, there
he is. By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit
of our lips giving thanks to his name. but to do good and
to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well
pleased. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls
as they that must give account that they may do it with joy
and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for
us For we trust we have a good conscience in all these things,
willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather
to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner." All by him. How do we do everything that
he just said? All by him. All scripture must be interpreted
by the Holy Spirit. All scripture must be digested
through the lens of the gospel. Otherwise, we'll miss the message.
We'll miss the message entirely. And the only way to do that is
if the Lord be the one feeding us. We can't gather information
like you would going to a store to get food to eat, unless the
Lord be the one that gives us the food. It's all Him. It's
Him that gives it. It's all by Him. It's all by
Him. If He doesn't, And you know this
is true. If he does not be our teacher,
if he chooses to hide himself, we'll make a law out of something,
won't we? We'll make a law out of prayer.
We'll make a law out of fasting. We'll make a law out of praise
and thanksgiving. We'll make a law out of obedience
that he's talking about here. And I'm hoping the Lord will
allow us to break them. My intention this morning is
to break down each of these as the Lord has shown me. So that
we see what he's really talking about how glorious it is that
the Lord allows that that's not even the right word he causes
causes his people to do all these things by him all by him all
by him. He can cause us to gain understanding
and reveal his son. The first admonition in our text
is verse 15. Let's look at that. By him, therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That
is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. So what is he saying? That I
need to sacrifice more? That I need to offer praise of
my lips more? Is that my motivation? Is that
what God is requiring? First words that he says is all
by him. By him, that's how you praise
him. If you find yourself praising
God, that's the result of God giving you the grace to praise
him. That's the result of God giving
you the ability to offer praise unto him. The first two words,
And I will say this, as far as should we offer praise and thanksgiving
more? Should we determine that? Well,
we can't offer it enough, that's for sure. He's worthy of all
glory and honor and praise, but everything that God requires,
He provides. If He's saying that it's our
responsibility as His children to offer the sacrifice of praise
and thanksgiving to Him, He's going to have to be the doer
of it. There's nothing we can do in this flesh, in and of this
flesh, by itself, that pleases God. It's all by Him, Christ
in you, the hope of glory. It's in Him we live, we move,
we have our being. It's in Him that we offer the
sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise. And because it's in Christ,
God is well pleased with it. Do we see? It's not like religion,
false religion that is. It's nothing like that. This
is the desire of each believer to say, thank you, Lord. for
saving my soul. Is that not true? I mean, you
don't have to be told to do that. If the Lord saved you, that's
just something that you desire to do unto him. Why? Because love. You love him. He's become everything to us. All this is Every bit of this,
we're not going to get past those first two words right there,
by him. And the reason I titled it all by him is just a couple
of weeks ago, I titled a message by him. So I can't do, I can't
do by him part two. It'd be a little bit confusing.
I said, well, it's all by him, all four of these. So if you
are unable to offer the fruit of praise unto God and it be
pleasing unto him, he's the doer of that. The believer never offers
praise and thanksgiving as any part of their salvation. We offer
praise and thanksgiving because we have been saved. We're not
offering praise and thanksgiving as part of our sanctification.
No. We're offering praise and thanksgiving
because we've been sanctified by his blood. We don't offer
praise and thanksgiving to be justified. No, we offer praise
and thanksgiving because we have been justified freely by his
grace. Freely by his grace. It's because
he's given us the ability. He gives the desire. He gave
us the heart. He gave us the faith to believe
him. This is how the believer offers thanksgiving and praise,
by looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, not to self. Offering
praise, you can't bring any part of you, and I can't bring any
part of me in praising the Lord. I can't say, Lord, thank you
for allowing me to choose you. That's not praising God, that's
praising me. Do you see that? Praise is selfless unto Him. Praise is looking to Christ.
Praise is desiring nothing but for Him to get all the glory
and all the praise. That's what it is, that's what
it is. By His will, His people are really enabled to really
praise Him. Scripture says, you know, we
know it's all by Him because the Scripture tells us for of
Him and through Him and to Him are all things. That's pretty
simple. I like simple. There's a lot
of things in a lot of different religions that are complicated.
That's not complicated for of Him and by Him and to Him. Through him, of him, through
him, and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. That's simple, that's simple.
That's why we praise him, it's all about him. We praise and
offer thanksgiving to his holy name all by him. Now the second
admonition is communication. And I'm so thankful we have the
ability to look up the definition of these words and look at the
original words and see the other meanings of the words. It gives
such clarity to it. Let's read this, verse 16. That
word communication means fellowship, Get this now, that word communication
is fellowship and communion. Fellowship and communion. What
is he saying? Well, he's saying you gathering
together to worship is well-pleasing unto him. Why? Because we're
desiring to see Christ alone. We don't come together to worship.
We often talk about our work week. We talk about things we're
going through. We talk about things we're dealing with. But
what is the real reason that we're here? It's to fellowship.
In Christ Jesus, it's to see Him high and lifted up. It's
to exalt Him, it's to praise Him, it's to worship Him. That's
the purpose of it being here. And if you are looking to Christ,
it's all by Him that you're looking to Him, and He gets all the glory. Gathering together for worship,
oh, we should make every endeavor to speak of Him, to speak of
Him. That word communicate also means
communicate. That wasn't the, it really does
mean that as well. What does it mean, communication?
Talk about Him. Talk about Him one with each
other. Talk about Him, we talk about it with coworkers and things.
Lord opens up the door, have a conversation with somebody.
Don't be afraid to talk about Him. Talk about him, you might
lose your job. Lord will give you another job,
it'll be all right. Might make people mad, tell them
the truth. People get mad when you tell
them the truth, that's okay, that's okay. Lord will fix it, Lord
will take care of it. Talk about him, don't be ashamed
of him. should make every endeavor to speak of Him to each other,
encourage each other. We should make His worship top
priority, shouldn't we? And if we do that, it's all by
Him that we do that. It's not that we get glory in
this in any way. See, talking about Him means
I'm not talking about self. Coming to worship him means I'm
not worshiping myself. I'm worshiping him. It's all
about him. And if we're doing that, it's
all by him that we do it. It's not by my own doings. Just to have the desire to do
it comes from him. And then the ability comes from
him. So that he gets all the glory. So why is it we should
get together? Why should we worship? Well,
number one, he said to, failing not the assembling of yourselves
together and so much more as you see the day approaching.
He said that. But he also said he's worthy. He's worthy of our
worship, isn't he? Why should we worship him? Because
he's worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our praise. Thirdly,
this is where God promised to meet with his people. Nowhere
else will you find in scripture where he says, I will meet with
you there. He said that those words talking about the Old Testament
mercy seat, but now this is where that mercy seat is seen. Do we
see that? This is where he'll be worshiped. That's why we should
make it a priority. And the last thing is, why should we worship
him? Because this is where the gospel of the Lord is preached.
The power of God unto salvation. This is the singular power of
God unto salvation. You can't get this from a hymn
book. Now we enjoy singing hymns, but
the Lord never saved anybody from a hymn. It just didn't.
It comes from the preaching of gospel. Preaching of the gospel.
This is what he said in his word. I understand something important
A non-believer cannot worship God. A non-believer cannot worship
God. Do you know why he's missing
or she's missing the two key elements? The spirit and the
truth. God is a spirit. That's what
the Lord told the Samaritan woman. And they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. Unless I have his spirit,
unless he has revealed his truth to me, I cannot worship him. So even our, I'm gonna keep saying
this, it's all by him. That's the point this morning.
It's not in us to have this ability. It's not in us in order to something
we acquire or something that we do as part of our salvation.
This is something he does in us all by him. Our worship is all by him. Otherwise we won't worship. We can't worship. Lord, you got
to give me your spirit. Lord, you're going to have to
reveal your truth. The good news is he promised to do just that.
That's the gift of God, all by him, by grace. That word saved,
by grace are you saved, through faith, that's the two keys right
there. We're saved and he gives you
faith in order to believe him. Faith is what causes us to believe
the truth. And if he saved us, he's given
us his spirit. All by grace, all by him. Therefore, Therefore, because
it's all by grace, therefore we gather together and we offer
the sacrifice of praise. We offer, we worship him and
we offer thanks unto him in the heart. Now it's something important. I said this a minute ago, but
I want to reiterate this because it's so important. We cannot
praise Him or offer thanksgiving if we have any part in it. Meaning if I am drawing attention
to myself in any way, He won't accept that. It's got to be all
about Him. It's got to be all about Him.
It can't be about, well, He did His part and I did my part. Thank
you, Lord. It doesn't work that way. No,
it doesn't work that way. It's all about Him. God hath
saved us and called us, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus
before time ever began. That's the truth, isn't it? That's
why we worship him. It's all by him. Notice that word in verse 16,
sacrifices. Sacrifice, what does that mean?
That definition is selfless. Selfless. It's not a sacrifice
as in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. That's not what that refers to.
It talks about being selfless. If you're sacrificing something,
you're doing something selflessly, and that's what offering praise
is, is it's selfless, as I mentioned before. Prayer, we're gonna hear
about in a few minutes. It's the same way. This is all selfless
acts. When you pray for one another,
getting ahead of myself, but when you pray for one another,
that's selfless. That's selfless. The Lord is,
the more we think about this, the more that we think on him,
is it not true the less we think on ourself? The more we call
out to him, the less we worry about ourself. The more we approach
him, the less we ponder upon ourself. And that's what this
is referring to. The more we praise Him, you can't
praise yourself while you're praising Him. There's only, either
you're praising yourself or you're praising Him. Either you're worshiping
Him or you're worshiping yourself or something else. This is the
point. And if I'm worshiping Him, if I'm praising Him, and
if I'm offering thanksgiving unto Him, it's all by Him, all
by Him. He's worthy brethren of all.
All glory, honor and praise. You know why? Because he saved
his people from their sin. He didn't try to make an offering
to man so that you might have a chance to accept or reject
him. He offered himself up to God freely. By grace, are you
saved? God accepted that offering so
that you and I could be saved by grace. This is why we praise
him. This is why we glorify him. This is why we worship him. And
I love the thought that that is exactly what heaven is, is
praising him and glorifying him. And did you know there's not
one selfish person in heaven? Think about that. Everybody's
focused on him. Everybody's worshiping him. They
don't get to walk around and say, look what I did for Jesus.
That is not how it's gonna go. That's the wrong Jesus. That
is not how it's gonna be. It's gonna be all about Him.
It's gonna be all about Him. Oh, we offer our sacrifice of thanksgiving,
not part of our salvation at all, but in love towards Him
because He actually saved His people from their sin. We thank
and praise Him, and it's all by Him. Think about this, if you're praising
him, if you're praising him, it's because he ordained it.
Listen to what Ephesians chapter two says, for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. God ordained If there's
any good work that happens, it's because it's by Him. And the
good work is looking unto Christ. If we look to anything else,
it's no longer a good work. Do we see that? The Lord's not
gonna accept it unless it's in Christ. Every time we talk about good
works, people get, A bit concerned. This is motivated by love. This
isn't a law. This isn't a law that says you
have to do this otherwise. This is the Lord admonishing
his people. Admonishing his people. The Lord's
well pleased with the sacrifice of your lips. Why? Because it's
in and by him. By him. Notice the third admonition,
verse 17. Obey them that have rule over
you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as
they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not
with grief for that is unprofitable for you. I realize I heard somebody's
phone go off and my phone is not off. So thank you. Okay, let's read that again.
Sorry for the distraction. Let's see, verse 17. Obey them
that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch
for your souls as they that must give account that they may do
it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for
you. Obey them that have rule over you. I knew that this might
get some raised eyebrows and some people's ears turned because
he says, obey them that have rule over you. What's he talking
about? What is he talking about? Well, there's many men who have
used this and still use this to say, I'm the king and you're
gonna listen. I'm the king, obey me. You know
who you will never hear that from? God's gospel preacher. Because I'm not in a position
to have the, my only authority is the word of God. That's all
that I have. That's it. I don't have anything else. I
don't have, my opinion is not authority. My tradition is not
authority. The gospel is God's authority. So what does he mean rule? What
is he talking about? Rule, lead. Obey them that lead
you. But what does that word obey?
What is he talking about obey? What do we obey? The gospel. of God's free and sovereign grace. That's what we obey. You're not
obeying me. You're obeying the gospel that
I preach. You're obeying the gospel that God has given to
us. That's the obedience. That's what he's talking about
here when he said, When he's talking about watching
over your souls, if a gospel preacher is watching over your
soul, what is he telling you? He's telling you the truth. He's
telling you the truth in love. And he's saying, obey that. Don't
rebel against the gospel. It's not me, you're not answering
to me, you're answering to God. I'm only trying to declare the
gospel unto us, unto us. And if a man is trying to preach
the gospel and the Lord has put him in that position, then we
obey that gospel. Not the man, but the gospel,
that's what we do. You have a bunch of men say,
no, I'm the king. They jump up and down, bow to
me, I'm the king. Some of you come out of, I think
the word's tyrant type mentality from people. I can't stand that. That's just not what we do. That's
just not what we do. We point to Christ. I'm your
servant. I'm glad to be your servant.
My job is to serve you. My job is to love you. My job
is to lead you unto him. That's my job. And if I fail
in that, I'm disqualified from being a pastor. My first priority,
what is the fruit of the spirit? Gentleness, meekness, temperance,
long-suffering. Sum that up with love. How about
that? That's the motivation for the
pastor. That's the motivation for the congregation. That's
why we're one. Our hearts have been knit together
and one unto the Lord. It's not that you're obeying
me. It's not that you're obeying my voice. It's that you're obeying
what God has said, the gospel of God. You're not mixing law
and grace. You're not mixing law and grace. Obey the gospel that God's preacher
preaches. That's as clear as I can be about
it. I think I've clarified that well. Obey them, believe salvation's
all of grace. Obey and believe that salvation's
all of grace. It's not grace and works, but
obey and believe that it's all by grace. And how do we do that?
all by him because if he leaves us to ourself, we're gonna start
mixing a little law in there, aren't we? We're gonna start
adding a little work in there somewhere as it's all by him.
He keeps his people. He keeps his people. It's in
him we live, move, and have our being. So if he's talking about
obedience, what would be the disobedience that would cause
grief to the pastor? What would be the disobedience?
Well, would it not be seeing the believer attempting to use
the law for righteousness? Wouldn't that be? The disobedience
that would cause grief. No, it's not that I didn't get
my way because we didn't paint the walls the color I wanted
to, that's silly. And I didn't say I didn't like the colors
of the wall, that's just an example I gave so don't let nobody get
offended. I'm simply saying the disobedience is the people, the
sheep, a believer using the law, trying to acquire righteousness
by the law, maybe one law, but it's grievous. And it's not just
grievous to the pastor, that's grievous to the body. It's grievous
to the Lord's people. The time that your pastor worries
over your soul the greatest is when he sees you seek to accomplish
something in the flesh that can only be accomplished by the Spirit.
That's whenever your pastor grieves the most. That can only be, the things
that can only be achieved by faith can't be accomplished by
the flesh, can't be, can't be. That's why this word obedience,
it's 1 Samuel 15.22, Samuel said, Hath the Lord has great delight
in burnt offering and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the
Lord? Hath the Lord has, does he delight in burnt sacrifices
and offerings as much as obeying the voice of the Lord? No, no. He said, behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams. Brethren,
we obey God's gospel and we look to Christ all by him, all by
him. Now lastly, look at verse 18. Pray for us. This is the fourth
admonition, fourth exhortation. Pray for us. For we trust we
have a good conscience. In all things willing to live
honestly. We're told to pray. We're told
to pray. Prayer is selfless. And what
a blessing to be able to pray and be heard. What a blessing
to be able to enter into the throne of grace boldly, having
obtained mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.
Well, how did we acquire that all by Him? How is it that we
can even pray and God hears us? We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We have an intercessor, one that
is pleading our case before the Father. We have a high priest. That's how it's all by him. It's
all by him. Now understand something about
prayer. I want to be as clear as I can
on this because there's so many people that lie about this and
I want to, this is what the Lord has made very clear in his word.
Prayer is not for God to change God's mind. Prayer doesn't change
God. Prayer changes you and prayer
changes me. Prayer causes us to cry out unto
the Lord whenever we have an infirmity or whenever we have
a need, or to give thanksgiving and praise. This is what praise
is for. It's a lifeline, if I can put it that way, to our Heavenly
Father, to the very throne room of God. And he hears us because
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all by him. It's all by
him. How does prayer change us? Well,
it makes us stop worrying about our will, and it starts making
us seek His will. His will. Do you remember in
the book of Daniel? Daniel prayed 21 days, the same prayer. He
kept praying, Lord, we're in captivity, we're in Babylon,
we're being persecuted. Help us, deliver us, allow, they
wanted to worship God, and they weren't allowed to. That was
the problem. Lord, we want to worship you again. Can you imagine
not being able to worship? I mean, that, That's terrible. And they couldn't
gather together like you and I do. They'd be persecuted. So
Daniel was praying, Lord, deliver us, Lord, deliver us, Lord, deliver
us. 21 days straight, no pleasant food came to his mouth, no pleasant
drink came to his mouth. He was serious about it. Well,
how was, why was he serious about it? Well, it was all by him.
It's all by the Lord. And what happened on the 21st
day? Well, the angel of the Lord appeared unto Daniel and he said,
from the very first time you prayed, I heard your words. I heard you, I love that, don't
you? I heard you the very first time. That means he heard him
the second time, he heard him the third time, all the way up
to 21. It was for Daniel to be desperate in order to get an
answer from the Lord. It was to make him desperate.
How many times have we prayed and not get an answer or not?
Sometimes the Lord don't give an answer, it means no. I mean,
that's just facts. And sometimes we just don't want
to accept that. But in time, the Lord teaches us to accept
it. It's his will. Is it not true that the end of
every prayer, regardless of what we're praying, we bow humbly
before him by his grace and say, Lord, not my will, but thy will
be done. Don't ever be afraid to make
your requests and petitions known unto the Lord. He actually tells
us to do so. But make sure that your heart
at the end, look to him and say, Lord, not my will, but thine
be done. I'm like Job, I'm gonna put my hands over my mouth. You
know what's best. You know what's best and that's what he teaches
his people. That angel told Daniel, from the first time you prayed,
I heard you and now I'm come for your words. Here's your answer.
Here's your answer. Sometimes it takes a long time
in our time. God's not subject to time. He
purposes all things. He's eternal, and He will answer
according to His will, and the Lord's people bow to that, all
by Him, all by Him. Why is it He exhorts us to pray? Well, the more we pray for others,
the less we think of self. The more we pray for others,
the less we think of self. The more I pray for your needs, the
less I'm concerned about my needs. It's true. The more we pray unto
the Lord for His will to be done, our will becomes dimmer and dimmer,
because we know the Lord's will is being done. We do pray for self sometimes,
and there's nothing wrong with that, but every time we do, Lord
calls us to say, not my will, but thine be done. Not my will,
but thine be done. What's the prayer that you pray
the most? Well, Lord, save us, save our children. I believe
that would probably be That would be the one. I'd say that would
be the one we'd probably all agree on. Whenever everything
at the end of it all goes and it's all gone, that's what you
pray. Lord, save us, save our children. And we say, nevertheless, not
my will, but thine be done. Don't you delight, he shows in
mercy. Don't you delight he promised he would never leave us if we're
his people, never forsake us? Don't you delight in knowing
that nothing's too hard for him whenever we start worrying, well,
what if he doesn't save my children? It's not impossible for him,
so why fret about that? Cry out to him. Cry out to him.
He'll answer in time. It may take 21 days, which might
translate to 21 years. Never know. You may never see
him. You may never see him confess
Christ, but that doesn't mean that he's That he didn't do it. It's up. It's all in his glorious
hand. All in his glorious hand. Don't
ponder the what ifs. They're only going to lead to
unbelief. Look to Christ to order and provide. Look to him. And
if you can, it's all by him. Here's what the Lord says, speak,
talk to him for he will intercede for you. He will take your prayer
and wash it in his precious blood and give it to the father. I
love that. And it'll be perfect, a perfect
prayer. You ever prayed a perfect prayer? I can't even think of
perfect thought, but he washes it in his blood and he gives
it, present it to the father and the father's well pleased
with it. Why? Because the Lord's the one that
presents it. That's the glorious part of the gospel. This is what
he does for his people. We pray to our Lord with the
heart of faith that he's given all by him. What the Lord says, tells us
clearly. He is pleased with his son. And
because we are in Christ, we have been born of his seed. We
have been created in him. The Lord is pleased with his
people. He's pleased with us. He's pleased
when we offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving through
faith all by him. He's pleased whenever we communicate
our Savior with others and communicate together, gather together communion
and worship unto Him. Why? Because it's all by Him
that we do that. See, none of this is giving credit
to the flesh. None of this is pointing to the
flesh. Or none of this is a law that says you have to do this.
This is all by Him if we can do it. And the prayer is, Lord,
cause me to do that. I desire to praise and thank
you. I desire to worship you. I desire all of these things
more. You ever seen worship and praise? I think they have praise and
worship team. I don't think, I know they have praise and worship
teams now. You ever heard of that before? Praise and worship
teams? Draws a lot of attention to the flesh, doesn't it? Draws
a lot of attention to the flesh. God is a spirit and they that
worship must worship in spirit and in truth. And whenever Elijah
was looking for an answer from the Lord, he had a rushing mighty wind And the Lord
wasn't in the wind. He had, there's several different
elements that the Lord gave, fire, earthquake, and he said,
well, the Lord's not in that either. The Lord's not in that
either. But then a still, small voice. That was the Lord. That was the Lord. The Lord speaks
to the heart. The Lord speaks to the heart, doesn't he? It's
all by him, that we worship him in the heart. We never draw attention
to our flesh. He's well pleased with his people
when we obey the message of the gospel, because obeying the message
of the gospel is selfless. It's all about the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the glorious salvation for the
elect of God. He's well pleased with that.
God's gospel is how he saved sinners, how he saved his sinners,
and it's all by the Lord Jesus Christ that he did that. Lastly, he's well pleased with
the prayer. Prayer to Him that's done selflessly, all by Him. All by Him. You know how this
is accomplished? Well, it's all by Him. But you
know what He's given us as a motivation? Love. That's how I started this
message. That's how I wanna end it too.
He's given us love unto Him. That's why we desire to praise
Him. That's why we desire to thank Him. That's why we desire
to worship Him. That's why we desire to obey His gospel. That's
why we desire to pray. one for another, and that's why
we desire to gather together to worship him. And if we're
able to do that, well, it's all by him that we get to do it.
It's all by him. Only can be accomplished by looking
to him, not self, all by him. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful
for your words. Lord calls us to praise you,
calls us to continually gather together, calls us to obey your
gospel, and calls us to pray to you one for another. We ask
you take this and bless it for understanding in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's take a break.