Who Can I Count On?

You and I have high expectations of a good life, and it begins when we're born and as children. We can see the young children here today. We think of life as a great opportunity, we're growing, we're getting bigger, and we get to do more. A little more responsibility comes along. More opportunities come along for fun, for relationships. You kind of think of the world as an opportunity in an environment that grows for us. Right away we have parents that are there for us, siblings that are there for us, relatives, grandparents, uncles, aunts, neighbors, friends, confidence. They're there to support us, and we feel supported. When we go to school, the teachers educate us, and they try to protect us, and tell us we can have a better life if we try harder. So we try harder. We have our neighborhood, and the activities, and the friendships, and the relationships in the neighborhood. Then there's the town, and the things that we can do, and we can receive, and we can support ourselves through the infrastructure of a town and a country, which government has an array of all types of social services and various provisions to allow us to travel, and to enjoy, and to communicate, and the infrastructure to have comforts that are brought by electricity, water, and gas, and roadways, and airways. So life is good. And then there are the farmers that are out there working so diligently, and the storekeepers, and the products that are being developed that always come out and seem to make life easier. Food gets better. There are doctors. There's medicine. There's emergency services. They're all just, it seems, a phone call away. Three quick numbers. We have an employer. We have our job. We have our career. We have a paycheck. Retirement. I mean, the Western world really sets one up well for our expectations. We have our money, and our bank, and there's interest, and there are investments, and there are lending institutions, and things that are there to help us if we should fall or if we want to grow larger. There's insurance in case of accidents for home, and auto. There's medical. There's dental. There's vision. All of these things support us, and when we have a little extra time and money, there are airplanes and cruise ships. There are boats. There are safe transportation globally to take us where we want to go. Then we have a spouse. Everybody dreams of getting married, and you're married, and now you have a spouse. Once again, you've got a helper. You've got a protector. You've got an encourager, an enabler.

Someone to assist and help promote your life, your possessions, your memorabilia, your treasures, the things that you purchase of quality that you know they're going to support you for a lifetime. Then we have our devices, our smartphones, our connections, our internet, our operating systems, our secure operating systems and programs. Then we have this thing called a body, an amazing thing created by God. It has systems that propel us to be able to accomplish the things with our feet and our hands and our minds and our eyes and ears and taste. What a wonderful thing this body is. Even a backup system, if we were to get injured, it sort of self-heals. You just sort of wait and the cut goes away.

We have our church members and our ministry. We have God, and we look forward to eternal life. We can depend on these things. So when we scoop life up together and our expectation for life, it's very big. It's very high. It's something that we really have a lot of trust in and confidence in. But what really is dependable in your life and mine? What can we really count on? And who can you make sure will never let you down? The title of the sermon today is, Who Can I Count On? Who can I count on? I'd like to revisit this topic because we are in a time right now where some of the things that I've just described to you have hit a speed bump, as it were. They've, in a sense, become strained to the point of letting us down. Those things that we came to depend on as always being there. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 8. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 8.

While we as humans might think that the things that we as humans create are semi-permanent and reliable, notice here some other things that Scripture tells us we would think are more reliable aren't. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 8. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail. Whether there are tongues, they were ceased. Where there is knowledge, it will vanish away. We've just risen to a new level above, say, our food supply or our money supply. And we're talking about prophecies. They will terminate. It's not that God's prophecies won't fail. That's obvious. But man's prophecies, predictions, will fail. The great predictions that people have that they seem to see so clearly, this is going to happen and that's going to happen, and then something completely different happens. And whether there are tongues, various languages, they will ultimately cease. Where there is knowledge, what humans consider to be knowledge, absolute rock-solid knowledge that they base their lives and their serious science on, it will vanish away. It will just become something that was theory. So if physical-related things are failing, what should you and my realistic expectations be for life, for the things in our life? We hear people promising improvements. Oh, by this date, this kind of thing is going to be out the door. We're going to return to normal. We're going to have a better economy than we've ever had. This is a great opportunity for a new green future, and we're going to come out of this just fine. We've almost got this licked, as it were. They are promoting temporal concepts, very limited, temporary things. We're going to go to Mars, and it's going to change everything. Promises, promises. Proverbs 14, verse 15 says, The simple believes every word. I always find it interesting around election times in all countries. Mary and I travel to various countries around the world, and often we'll hit there during election times. Or you can go online and do international news sites and listen to the politicians. It's amazing the things they say, and it's so encouraging and bright, and they've got such a wonderful plan. People's emotions sort of rise to the positive, and the bands play on. But in reality, they say words that, as it says here in verse 15, the prudent considers well his steps. We are on a path. We're making steps. And we are prudent when we follow what God says and do what God says, and not get tantalized by empty words, believing every word. Rather, consider well your steps. Considering your steps means planning and determining what is real. Any time you're going to consider your steps or plan your steps, you have to understand reality, and you know what fantasy is. So let's revisit those things that I mentioned a moment ago that we thought we could count on in society today. A child growing up, parents and siblings are there for you. In a 2008 study by the Center for Marriage and Family, it says cohabitation, unwed births, and divorce have now become widely accepted and practiced. Secular individualism consists of the abandonment of beliefs, a strong leaning towards personal autonomy and self-fulfillment and tolerance of diverse lifestyles.

The greater the secular individualism is in a culture, the more fragmented the family becomes. As society continues to move in this cultural direction, the family can be expected to weaken.

We live in an age now, fast-forwarding 12 years from there, where marriage is not a common practice among people at the start of their life.

We now find that, as it says, children are born out of wedlock, partners are not loyal to each other. This sort of living together is a temporal thing that allows secular individualism, the individual to continue to leave and depart and forsake family, friends, if there is no real marriage, etc. We have this personal autonomy of individuals.

The unmarried, the lived together, the cohabiting couples have five times the rate of separation that married couples have in divorces. So it just shows you the fragmentation without that responsibility, without that commitment of marriage.

It also brings more anxiety, more infidelity, less income, and only half of them ever marry, and those who do have a 50% rate of divorce.

So you can see the point here isn't to bash any particular group, but to just show that individuals who are thinking that family and spouse and close ones are going to be there for them are going to be let down in a world that is not following God's laws.

For those who do marry, there's a divorce every 36 seconds in the United States.

41% of all marriages in the U.S. end in divorce. But get this. 60% of second marriages end in divorce, and 73% of third marriages end in divorce.

You can see what's happening with this secular individualism model that's in humans' minds. There's no real loyalty. There's no glue, as it were, a responsibility and affinity for others.

What about a friend is there for you? Well, that works for a while until something changes. You move, jobs change, philosophies change, words happen, beliefs change, some offense takes place.

And in a world where an individual is all about themselves, offenses and breaking of relationships is readily available.

The neighborhood, the town, the country, the infrastructure that supports us, where have we seen that go in the last three months?

It just sort of broke apart, didn't it? For reasons not intended, people did not feel and have not been very supported. And yet the taxes continue, the fees, the expenses.

We have the police and the legal and the courts to support us until we find that some of those aren't really supportive at times.

Until you turn against, like they did, Jesus Christ.

The legal, the rulers, the church leaders, the government, or Paul and Peter. And suddenly you're out of step and you're in prison for what happened to Jeremiah and so many others.

It can be a system of expediency and not a system of justice.

Let's go to Matthew 24, verse 7.

Here Jesus said, For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in various places.

And all these are the beginning of sorrows, and then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

So respecting love and truth and right in God's eyes is not respected by the society of the God of this world.

We find water, electric, fuel, transportation, the things we depend on. Suddenly those things are shaky. The source of them becomes very shaky.

The availability of them can be shaky.

And the farmers and the crops, again, there are impacts that happen to them, political impacts and other types of impacts, and manufacturing availability due to COVID-19 that limits the supply of food.

And if that food chain gets broken or strained, then hoarding takes place, and people can't get some of the supplies that they need.

The doctors and medical services that are there for us suddenly become the highest risk environment for individuals.

You know, your employer, your company, no fault of their own, but so many individuals are out of support when it comes to getting by, paying their bills, being able to live.

And then retirements. You think, oh, it could retire, only to find out that things are being shut down, and there are mergers, and there are raids on the funds, and the corporate loyalty is to stockholders and not to the employees. And then along comes something like this, and a widespread trigger of job losses takes place, and a downturn in the market, which raids everybody's retirement.

As it says in the New York Times, already chronically underfunded pension programs have taken huge hits to their investment portfolios over the past months as markets collapsed. The COVID-19 outbreak has also triggered widespread job losses and business closures that threaten to wipe out state and local tax revenues. Some 11 million individuals in the United States that have relied on these things are finding that they're evaporating down to some cases in the single digits of value to what they once were.

In Matthew 6 and verse 19, to continue this sort of negative view but a realistic awakening, Matthew 6 and verse 19, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. So if we're looking for any of these things as our support, as what we can count on, then we find, as Jesus says here, don't lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Because those things are not going to be there for us long-term.

We find today that individuals are continually after what money we have left, be it through ransomware on our devices. Or even sometimes when you go to purchase something, the salesman will pretend to be your great friend and looking out for you and your family. And meanwhile, they're getting a massive chunk of whatever the sales price is from you committing to purchase it. Just right off the top. And whether it's time shares or some other so-called investment, individuals who really can't afford to be giving away lots of money are taken advantage of by their own people. And when I think about around the world and some of the things that we've seen in our own neighborhood and also in places where people from North America go, it's not the locals that are taking advantage of you. It's the people at home that go to the locals and they set up a sort of an entertaining or intriguing sight that you can belong to or you can come and play at or whatever. And they're the ones, your own folks, are the ones that are taking advantage of you almost anywhere. In Ecclesiastes, we find that even our bodies will let us down. Ecclesiastes 12, verse 1 says, Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them. It's quite often, in fact, even today, a person older than I am told me, don't get old, John. My response was, people have been telling me that for 50 years. For some reason, I can't follow the advice, but I'm starting to tell it to others.

And so it is. You and I, our own bodies, have a letdown function. As a lady once told me, she said, you know, it's... You depend on your body and you've had this body your whole life. It's the thing that really gets you through. And then it turns on you. It seems to turn on you and actually work against you. And it's just a humiliating thing in one sense.

She said, Jesus Christ experienced abandonment. The apostles did, the prophets did, the New Testament church did, our church, you and I. Sin is self-centeredness. It's self-promotion. It's self-isolation from others. It's an independence for me and how I think and what I want. And that is sin.

Okay, enough with the negative. But that's what men will throw at you. That's what this human realm will throw at you and me. That's what society will send to us. But as the title says, who can I count on? Who can I count on? And the answer to this isn't as clear as you might think. Because from a selfish mode, we might be thinking, I want to get something from someone.

And that is dependability, support. Who can I get that from?

In Proverbs 14 and verse 12, let's begin working out of this hole towards the solution for who we can count on in life. Proverbs 14 and verse 12, there is a way that seems right to a man. And in one sense, that's how we look at life when we're young. Ooh, that's what I want to do, and me, and me, and me. But the end thereof is the way of death. That is not something that God is going to support. That's not something that you and I really want to pursue.

In verse 13, So the first key we get here is a good man, a woman, will be satisfied from above, from God. So we need to look up, we need to reorient our life to who we can count on, will be two individuals mentioned in this verse. One is God, and the other is a good person in God's eyes. So being godly and linked to God are the two individuals that you can count on in life, as we're going to see.

Rock-solid dependability comes from the mindset of the God family, which is agape love. Love, truth, right, we could say in 3. Love, outgoing concern and thought for God and fellow man. Truth, absolute truth from God, nothing else. And right, doing right. All of those things promote goodness and dependability for everyone concerned. Now we begin to see then from whom this rock-solid dependability comes from. Who can you really count on? Well, what we can really count on is God's plan of salvation. That gets pushed aside sometimes in the busyness of trying to live and go about our other responsibilities, but God's way works. It works for you. It works for me. It works now. It works forever. In Revelation chapter 26, verses 6 and 7, I'm sorry, Revelation 21, verses 6 and 7, it says, And He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to Him who thirsts. So there's our source and there's the receiver. We have to thirst. We have to want God, godliness, His Spirit. Now notice, He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be His God, and He shall be my Son. That's assurance from God. Assurance from the God family. Notice your mention right there. Overcomers will be sons of God, and He will be with us. So the only dependable expectation that you and I have goes right here. We need to be godly overcomers, and we can depend that God will bring us into His kingdom in a Spirit form later, but also bring us into His family, His sons and daughters, now. In 1 John chapter 3 and verse 13, not back very far, 1 John chapter 3 and verse 14, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren.

He who does not love his brother abides in death. Okay, so we love the brethren. Notice verse 16. By this we know love. We know that God loved us, loves us, because He laid down His life for us. Jesus Christ laid down His life. God the Father laid down His Son. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Now that's what's dependable. That's what you and I can count on. God laying down His life for us, and us laying down our lives for each other. That's dependable. That comes through the Holy Spirit. That comes from God. You can count on that.

Now, if we go to verse 18, My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. In verse 23, 22, And whatever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. So this responsibility of who can I count on turns back to you and to God in combination. That's who you can count on. You can count on yourself and God as being sources of love that do things pleasing in His sight.

And verse 23, this is His commandment that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment. So it's by loving. And as it says back up there in verse 18, Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. This is who we count on, the family of God. And as a member of the family of God, you and I need to be dependable to God and to each other.

The God family is who you can count on. And you can't separate anyone out of that that's in the God family. Who are you? Who am I? Let's go to Romans chapter 8 and verse 14. Sometimes we might feel small, irrelevant, needy. But let's see who we are. Romans chapter 8 and verse 14 says, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. If you're led by the Spirit of God to love, to truth, to do right, you are a member of the God family.

In verse 15, But you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. That's who you are. That's who I am. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs of God, join heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

It's so important when we think of who can I count on to realize I am responsible to be counted on along with God in the body of Christ, in the Church of God, in the family of God. You and I can be counted on by others. Why? Why can we be counted on? Let's go to Mark chapter 12, and hear it from Jesus Christ. Mark chapter 12 and verse 30. This rises above environmental impacts, health impacts, pandemics, downturns in markets, shortages of food, persecution, or anything else.

We are children of the God family. We can be counted on. We can be relied on to never let anyone down. Not family, not spouse, not neighbors, not enemies. We love everyone, and not just mentally, but through action. In Mark 12 and verse 30, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.

This is the first and great commandment. So that's who we are. This is why we can be counted on. Because we love God first with everything. And the second like it is this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. We can be counted on because we care about others as much as we care about me. Here we are in a COVID pandemic, and it feels odd, and it feels odd to have something like this on. I called the governor's office this morning after trying to reach them for a week via email, and I asked them, So we're following all your guidelines. Everyone will have everything you require.

We have your whole program in place just as you've defined it, and we're abiding by it. Since a few of us will be up on a stage behind a lectern, far from anyone in the audience, would it be okay if we removed our masks to speak? Well, that one caught them by surprise. They had to take it up to the supervisor level, and it took a while until they came back on the phone and said, Well, we appreciate your situation. I had already told them, I said, You know, when the governor goes on TV, he doesn't wear a mask. Kind of like that.

They would be distanced. They came back and said, Well, in your situation, you're in a closed room, and therefore, no, everyone has to wear a mask at all times, including you. So that's why I have this beautiful self-tailored mask by my lovely wife. Two, three months ago, we would have never dreamed we'd be wearing masks, and I'd have five of them in different colors and styles. Can't wait to get out of them.

Isn't it great when you're wearing glasses and you steam up, and you can't see anything going around? So anyway, not only does it feel odd, it looks a little different, but we're all in the same boat, so we just have to relax with it.

And yet, people have been sequestered for months, and those who want what they want from the world have a pent-up angst inside. They're getting angry, as it were, that they have been denied those things in life that they thought society was there to provide for them.

And they have built up an anger that spills out whenever an opportunity arises, it seems, however unrelated to their anxiety. They just overflow to where individuals will, I've seen a man punch a woman in the face on television and break her nose simply because they ran out of an item in the store. You know, it's just human nature coupled with Satan's selfishness that stirs individuals up to where friends exchange barbarous attacks and opinions that separate them. And authorities step over the line, and people riot against authorities, and people come and then start tearing into stores and businesses, and just lawlessness results. Who can you count on? Those of you in this room, who can you count on now? Think about this for a minute. Masks do not keep you safe. They do not even help keep you safe. What we're wearing here today. You know, there's so much air circulating in. It doesn't do anything. You're breathing some secondhand air at times. The only thing that a mask is intended to do is keep others from getting the droplets that come out of your mouth. Taking your temperature as you come into the hall doesn't make you safe. It doesn't keep you well. Taking your temperature only can help you know that you could put others at risk. The intent is to keep others safe. Irrespective of what works and doesn't work and the rationale behind it, here we are, able to show love and, in a sense, trust that others have our back. The God family is love, and it comes through God's Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit does produce a type of love that is unique in all situations. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. We'll begin in verse 4. Love suffers long. Love suffers long. We go through things. We do things for others that are difficult, inconvenient, cause a loss, a loss of time, a loss of energy, a loss of food, a loss of money. Love suffers. Sometimes individuals put things on a person that are difficult to bear, but out of love we do not respond in kind, and so we suffer in that regard as well. Love does not envy, does not parade itself. It's not puffed up. It's not about me. It doesn't behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity. So the things that we see that are repugnant are not love. They're not of God. Because love, as in verse 6, rejoices in the truth. It bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things.

Love never fails. Under any situation, love never fails. We're tempted to fail, but like Jesus Christ, when He was on the stake and He was dying, love never failed. He was looking to give eternal life to the two thieves on either side of them that were making fun of Him. He was not wanting God to condemn the audience, including the Roman soldiers and the priests and anyone else who was killing Him. Love never fails. Miriam Webster defines the term loyal with several descriptions. And in the primary descriptions, all the descriptions begin with faithful.

Faithful. We need to be faithful. To what? To whom? That's an interesting word. Faithful. If you go back to all the systems and people and things of this world, how many of them are truly faithful?

Not many. Not many are faithful. But under God's way, everybody's faithful. God is faithful. He'll never leave us. Our spouse is faithful. Our families are faithful. Our church members are faithful. Our ministry is faithful. Everybody is faithful. And they can thus be counted on. In Psalm chapter 15, we can see how the letdowns occur and what the cause of them are. In Psalm chapter 15, let's just look at this whole chapter.

It's not very long. And see the elements involved in some of the letdowns that happen. Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell on your holy hill? We're going to find it's the faithful. He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. Is that what we see in society? Is that what we see in all the levels of society and levels of human families and humanism?

No. That's the problem. That's why the world and its society will let us down. But who walks uprightly and works right in God's eyes, speaks truth, who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend, and whose eyes a vile person is despised, but honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own hurt and does not change, who does not put out his money for usury, or take up a bribe against the innocent.

He who does these things shall never be moved. He'll be faithful. And you and I are those things. And so we are faithful, and we can be counted on. In 2 Peter, chapter 2, beginning in verse 9, 2 Peter, chapter 2, and verse 9, says, The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, trials, and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, especially those who walk according to the flesh, and the lust of uncleanness, and despise authority.

Those are not faithful. They are presumptuous, self-willed, not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. Dropping down in verse 12. But these are like natural, brute beasts, made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of things they don't understand. Utterly will perish in their own corruption, will receive the wages of unrighteousness. They are spots and blemishes. Verse 14, Having eyes of adultery, cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls.

They have a heart trained in covetous practices in our cursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray. Those people cannot be counted on. You and I should have nothing to do with that type of sinful nature. Though we once did, though we once had to repent and come out of it, it should be repugnant to us more and more as we grow away from it. In Malachi 2, verse 13, the reason why people cannot count on family, and the reason why you and I should be absolutely counted on when it comes to family, is shown here in chapter 2, verse 13.

In this you do, you cover the altar of the Lord with tears. You know, when you think of hurting someone, what do they do? It tears up their life. They get on their knees and they call out to God, help me through this terrible, terrible situation.

And God is talking about that. You've covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying. For what reason? Well, you have not been faithful. Yet she's your companion and wife by covenant. God seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit. So that's why we're faithful. And at times, all of us have thoughts and ideas that come into our mind, and we kind of wander around in life, and then God kind of smacks us upside the head, and we say, ah, your way works, and I need to be devoted and committed to being a trustworthy individual.

And so we have a wonderful opportunity to grow. Now, you and I are part of this God family. You and I are trustable, trustworthy, faithful, and we're growing in that. If we're led by God's Holy Spirit. Let's, as we begin to wrap this up, let's go to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. And if there's one thing that you and I need to get from this message, it is to realize that we all need someone to count on, and that starts with you and me.

It starts, it begins with you and me. It doesn't begin with critiquing someone else. It begins with you and me. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 1. Therefore, if there's any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love being of one accord and one mind. You and I have been cleansed through the blood of Christ.

We have been brought near to God the Father. We come right before the throne, and we are pure and sinless and clean in His eyes when we are of the same love, one accord, one mind. So, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. That lets people down. That takes advantage of them. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. And that's a person who can be counted on right there. They're looking out for everyone.

It says others. They're looking out for God, the kingdom of God, the world, family, church members, enemies, everybody. We want them all in the family of God. Verse 5, so let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it... That word robbery, you might recall, means to hang on to something like a robber would hang on to your purse. He's going to win, by the way, because he is determined to get that purse away from you.

That's why they call it robbery. It actually has nothing to do with robbery. It has to do with an intent clinging to it like a robber would in a tussle over something. So he was in the divine form of God at the throne, but he did not consider it something to hang on to and stay there with that glory to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. He let go of that glorious God-being state and came as a human being.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself. He became obedient to the point of death, even to the death of the tree. Therefore God has also mightily exalted him above every name, and given him the name which is above every name. Verse 12, Therefore, my beloved, because of these things, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Who can you depend on? Well, here it is. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. In other words, with deep respect for this opportunity that you and I have been given. It goes back to members of the family of God depend on each other. And you have to be a dependable member, and so do I. And therefore, work on that salvation. You're part of it. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure.

In verse 14, Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. We should be loving and serving and giving in all of this, wherever we have opportunity, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. So in conclusion, who can you count on? Well, really, we should turn that question around. Who can count on you?

That's really the question. I ask myself, who can count on you? Who can count on me? Can my wife sitting there count on me? Can my children and grandchildren? Can my congregations? Can the neighbors in our neighborhood? Can God and Jesus Christ, who's looking for another member of the bride, can he count on me?

That's the question to be asking. In some ways, everything physical will ultimately fail. All is temporary. Even the purpose of this physical realm is temporary. God wants you and I to develop something that's eternal, a character. We do that by faithfulness to Him, to His way, to His laws, to His kingdom, to His family, to His plan, so that we can become counted on forever in service to God. To encourage us, He gave us a Bible full of examples. Some are good, strong examples that show us under any circumstance, whether it's the King of Babylon, or King of Egypt, or King of Rome.

We'd be faithful under any circumstance. In Hebrews 13, let's conclude by reading a few verses of what we might call the Faithful chapter. We have the Faith chapter in 11. Here we have a chapter that talks about being faithful. Hebrews 13, begin in verse 1. Let brotherly love continue. See where faithfulness comes from, accountability, dependability, and loyalty. Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing some, have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also. How many times does the Bible say, Remember the stranger? You are once strangers. You are once slaves. Love the poor, people around the world. You and I should be the greatest friends to everyone of every skin color, every size, shape, minority, every language. Wonderful people. And hopefully we'll have opportunity as a congregation to get a little more involved in assisting individuals who have needs. Because, as it says, we're to remember the prisoners as if chained with them. Verse 4, marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled. Verse 5, let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with what things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. So we may boldly say, who can we count on? The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Let's strive to be the person that the God family and those without right now can count on, can depend on, forever. We do that by being committed to God, to godly love, producing harmony in God and in Jesus Christ with each other as we strive for the kingdom. And when we do that, everyone can count on you.