As we set up our time moving into Second Corinthians, Chapter 11, I just wanted to share with you guys a little bit about what I'm learning from my kids. My kids are awesome. I have a three and a half, almost four year old named Adeline. She's a spitfire. She keeps us on our toes. And then we have a one and a half year old boy named Solomon. And they're just at this sweet age right now where they mostly play together. Well, and I know that's like a short window of time, they'll be fighting more and more later on. But part of the reason why it's so special is because Solomon adores his older sister. Like, she cannot do anything wrong unless she steals his food. Like, that's the only thing that could go wrong between Solomon and her older sister. His older sister. The other day, Adeline went out to play on the swings and was just swinging about while we were prepping some dinner. And Solomon, he's not old enough to play in our backyard alone. So he's just there at the sliding glass door, just like looking out longingly to play with his big sister. And then I had to break his heart because he's like leaning on the screen door. I'm like, solomon, no, you gotta move. And he starts crying. Then I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm a bad dad. But there's just this element where he just looks up to his older sister, just adores her, like. Like thinks she's the best and just wants to be with her, wants to be like her. Like, he doesn't have the words to articulate these things yet, but you just see it in him. And it's this wonderful thing that we see. And kids, that kids are just kind of born followers, right? Like, they're born following their parents around, they're born following their older siblings around, their cousins around. And there brings up this truth that we all are born followers. All of us. Like, all of us. If you just think back a bit, whether it was our older siblings, our cousins or friends at school, our parents, each of us can think back at a point of time when we're growing up and we see there's so one that we just look up to and we want to be like. And we want to follow, we want to emulate their lives. But then you fast forward 5, 10, 20, 40 years, we've grown up, but have we grown out of following? Probably not. There are still people we look up to who we want to be. Like, they live in a way that we want to live and we want to be like them. Whether it's the upperclassman who's recognized for your favorite sport or instrument or school activity, just like I want to be like them. Or it's the co worker who's got the job that you want, you know, or the boss that has the job that you want or is that they're working and doing the things that you would want to do. And then the hobbies that they get to do and get involved in there, they're able to balance it all. It seems like, like they have the family, they have the job, they have all the things. Or it's the mom that seems like they just have it all together all the time. They, they read their bibles, they're, you know, they're able to spend time with family. They just have it all together. There are people who are just living the life that we, that we wish we could live and then we desire to follow them so that we can have it. And even if you are here in this room and you're listening to some of these examples and you say like, no, I'm independent, you know, I'm self sufficient. I've got my own way of doing things. I don't let others tell me what's good and what's right. Let me tell you this, you learn that from someone, right? You didn't come up with that on your own. That is another element of you just following in someone else's way that you saw someone that was independent, doing their own thing, their own ways, and you're following and it's, you know, being followers isn't a bad thing. God created us to be followers. Adam and Eve in the garden were made to be in God's image, to be like God, to follow his ways, to obey him. But the problem is, is when we follow the wrong people down the wrong path, and we all have seen that, haven't we? We've all seen people that have followed the wrong people down the wrong path. Whether it is our children ending up in the wrong crowds or graduating high school and veering off in their relationship with Christ, veering off from the Christian faith. Whether it's family members who, man, we really wish they wouldn't have ended up with that spouse or they ended up cheating on the right spouse or our neighbors and co workers getting caught up in this misinformation. Internet stories storm, just like being baited with every sort of thing about the other person that they want to believe. Following the wrong people is not new to our human experience, it's very normal. And that's exactly what's been going on in the Corinthian church as we've been working through the Book of Corinthians, the Letter to the Corinthians. Paul planted this church with a strong gospel foundation. But then these false teachers, they just snuck into in posing as Christians and came with a different gospel and a different Jesus that had a better life for the Corinthians than Paul was offering. And the Corinthians were led away by this lie, away from Paul's teaching, away from the truth, because they wanted Jesus in the comfortable life. They wanted Jesus in the glamorous life. And these false teachers had the Corinthians hooked because they had these glamorous lives. They were living these lavish lives while talking about Jesus, but it was not the true Jesus. The Corinthians were following the wrong people down the wrong path. And if we know we are at risk of following the wrong people down the wrong path, the question we need to wrestle with this evening is how do we know who to follow? How do we know who to follow? And that's what we're going to see tonight as we open up 2 Corinthians 11. If you have your Bibles and phones, you can go ahead. Open up to Second Corinthians, chapter 11. We're going to see three marks of a person to follow. If we find these three marks in a person, we know they are good to follow. So read with me. Second Corinthians 11, verses 1 through 4. Paul says this. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. Paul is pleading with the Corinthians. Listen to me. I know it seems like I'm being a fool right now, but listen to me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough so you can tell that Paul is saddened right here. There's something wrong going on in the Corinthians. And here we're gonna see. The first mark of a person to follow is someone who is jealously dedicated To. To what's best for you. Someone who's jealously dedicated for what's best with you. We see that Paul has divine jealousy for the Corinthians. And oftentimes we see jealousy as an improper, improper characteristic. We lump it into envy and covetousness, like wanting what someone else has. Like you're jealous about what someone else has. But in this context, Paul is referring to this protective, fierce, godly feeling for his beloved Corinthians, this church that he planted. It's like this, dads with daughters. You care a lot about the person your daughter marries, right? You care so much about that. And if you're not a dad with a daughter, just imagine that, like you ought to be, you ought to care a lot because you. You desire the best for your daughter. That man better be the real deal. He better love Jesus more than he loves your daughter. You refuse to let her settle for a subpar guy. Better have a deep care, proven character, demonstrate that he can both protect and provide for your daughter. We ought to be fierce and protective for our daughters best. And our jealousy for our daughter's best makes us dedicated to it. We will prepare our daughters to look for what is best. And then we will also get in the way when something lesser comes along. And Paul is jealous for the Corinthians. He's jealous because he is their spiritual father who handed them over to Jesus as to the most perfect, wonderful groom that they could have ever met, the one that will protect them and provide for them. The Corinthians. You won't find a better spiritual spouse. No way. Think about all the factors that make Jesus the perfect groom. With me, there's no contest. Think about this. Jesus is caring. He knows every hair on your head, every single one. And he cares deeply about what you care about. He cares about you. He cares about your life. He's a provider. Jesus and the Father, they created the entire world and everything in it. He can definitely provide for your needs. And he has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us in heaven. He's a provider. He's a strong protector. Jesus is able to calm a storm with a couple of words and to raise people from the dead. He is powerful. He's a strong protector and he is faithful. He will never turn his back on us. He never changes. He will never cheat or leave. And he is sacrificial. He laid his life down for his people, for his church, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. He took our sin so that we could Be pure. Did you notice that word that Paul used in there? Betrothed you to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. That might be language that's like man. I can't imagine that describing me. No matter thinking about burdened with guilt from your past or guilt from present sin. But the reality is, what Jesus has done has made us pure. He died for our sins for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life. He has died for us and made pure, has washed us clean. How good is Jesus? He is so good. And our union with him and devotion to him is where we will experience life, security, purity, peace and joy. There's no contest. We need to see this. Jesus is who is best for the Corinthians. And he is who is best for us. He is who is best for us. So what is best for us is our devotion to Jesus, our relationship to Jesus, for nothing to get in the way of us loving Jesus. And that is Paul. He's jealously dedicated to the Corinthians, devotion to Jesus, because that is what's best for them. That's what's best for them. And when you are jealous for what's best, you won't settle for what's less. You won't settle for anything less. Which is why he is fearful in verse 3. Because the Corinthians are getting deceived. They're being led astray to something terribly less than this perfect groom of Jesus. They're being led astray from their devotion to Jesus and deceived into committing spiritual adultery against Jesus. And how on earth were they led astray from this amazing God who died for them, sacrificed for them? We see the context in verse three. They were deceived, just like Eve in the garden. Eve in the garden was there, and the serpent just came in and planted a seed of doubt into her mind. She was lured with the lie that God was holding back what was best from her. The serpent said, you will not surely die. Eat the fruit and you will be like God. You will be more like God, knowing good and evil. And she believed it, as if being made in the image of God wasn't enough. This is what happened next. Read with me Genesis 3, verse 6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired, to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her. And he ate. She was lured with the lie. The Lie looked good and she bit the bait. She took it. And the Corinthians were deceived from the best because they liked the lie too. They liked the lie that there was more to be found in this Christian life apart from the true Jesus, apart from the Jesus that Paul had presented to them. The lie was this. There's something better for you outside the Jesus. You know, there's something better in a different Jesus from a different gospel of a different spirit. And the deception was believable because it was disguised distortion. It was hidden. See, the false apostles, they weren't claiming Jesus wasn't real. They weren't denying the legitimacy of Jesus. They were just proclaiming a different Jesus with a different gospel. Debate was a better Jesus than the true Jesus that Paul was proclaiming to them. Their deception was a distortion of the true Jesus. And if we're honest, our culture has distortions of Jesus as well, doesn't it? Like the political Jesus whose image finds himself his false image finds himself on Jesus is a bleeding heart liberal signs and also on American flags. Who preaches the gospel that promises peace and tranquility if our party is just in control, maybe it's the affirming Jesus who preaches the gospel of live however you would like to live. Jesus will always love you. Jesus will always. He doesn't care about what you do. He doesn't care about who you date and what you do with them. He doesn't care about how much you drink, he doesn't care about you pouring yourself into your hobbies to the neglect of the more important things in your life. He doesn't care about those things. He wants your happiness. He doesn't care about your holiness. He wants your happiness. Or it's the moral Jesus. And I think this is one of the most dangerous distortions where we know the truth, that the Bible is good for our kids, God is good for our children. And if we raise them up in the ways of the Bible, that God will use that for good. But then it gets twisted into becoming if I just take my kids to church, if I teach them good things, if I make them moral, if I help them, help them to do the right things and they're going to grow up, they're going to be good kids, they're going to go to a good college, they're going to marry a good spouse and then have good kids that'll grow up and it's all about just being right. It's all about just being moral. It's not about loving Jesus. These are examples of a distorted Jesus that promises both the life our sinful hearts desire and life with God at the same time. Distortions that are a delight to the eyes with worldly goods and desirable to make one wise for worldly gain. And we can be deceived into loving distortions of the truth. We can. The question is, do we know the distortions of Jesus we're tempted to love in place of the true Jesus that promises us a better life apart from Jesus, apart from the true Jesus? And do we know our Bibles well enough to distinguish the truth from the lie? Either way, even if we are equipped or not, the danger is real and we need to follow people dedicated to our devotion to Jesus because Jesus is who is best for us. Sincere and pure devotion to him is what is truly best for us. And we see that Paul was jealous for and dedicated to the Corinthians devotion to Christ. And now as we see the other marks of someone to follow, we're going to see that Paul proved himself, proved that he was dedicated to the Corinthians devotion through these marks. And this for this next mark that Paul prioritized doctrine of Christ over delivery with charisma. He prioritized doctrine of Christ over delivery with charisma. So read with me 2nd Corinthians 11, 5 and 6. Paul says, Indeed I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these Super Apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge, indeed in every way. We have made this plain to you in all things. So this is what's going on. The super Apostles claim that Paul was lesser than them. He was inferior to them because he lacked the verbal delivery skills that they had. Okay, he didn't talk very well. And so they just like, all right, you're not worth listening to cause you don't talk very well. They on the other hand, built their ministry around their speaking abilities, around the ways that they could make people like them and respect them. By the way they could talk. They had mastered the art of speech and it wowed the Corinthians. People followed them for how they spoke instead of the truth they spoke about. People followed them for how they spoke instead of the truth they spoke about. And we can fall into the same ditch too, okay? That's why TikTok Christians are like so popular right now because it's really easy to say something really well in 35 seconds without necessarily caring about the truth that's underneath it. And so Paul admits here, okay, I'm not like those guys. I'M unskilled in speech, I'll give you that, but not so in knowledge. I know Jesus. I don't have the delivery and charisma that they do, but I know Jesus. Paul knows his doctrine. He knows Jesus deeply. He knows God's word and he's made that plain to the Corinthians day in and day out. His ministry was never based on having flashy speech. His teaching has always been about encouraging the Corinthians relationship with Jesus by helping them know him more deeply. His aim was for the Corinthians to love Jesus more, not to love himself more, not to love him more. He didn't care about what they thought about him. As far as being a well spoken guy. He spoke the truth so that people would know Jesus more. He didn't care about making people like him more. He didn't just give people what they wanted to hear because he cared about people knowing Jesus. Jesus is who is best for the Corinthians. So they need to know the true Jesus more deeply, not a different Jesus from a different gospel. So think with me a bit about the people you might follow online, especially if it's Christians online. The people that you listen to, the people you read. Why do you listen to them? Why do you follow them? Do you follow them more because they wow you with their illustrations and passion and lifestyle, or because they help you love Jesus more deeply? What's the goal? Cause, passions and illustrations, they're not a bad thing, but they're not the main thing. And if the main thing isn't leading you to love Jesus more, then it's gonna lead you away from Jesus. It's going to lead you to celebrate a teacher over Jesus. The ultimate teacher, the ultimate king. So ask yourselves, have the people I am following proven they want to grow my love for Jesus, or are they just. Maybe they're just after building their influence online, building themselves up. Do they prioritize the doctrine of Christ over me, over me, loving their delivery? Is their message more about Jesus or is it more about themselves? Do they care more about my walk with Jesus than telling me what I want to hear? Making me happy, making me like them? And what's hard about this question is that when we're asking about people online, it's really hard to find the answer. It's really difficult to know what's going on in the lives of people that we just see on a screen or hear on the radio or hear on a podcast. Which doesn't mean we have to just disregard those people entirely. But it asks us the questions, who's influencing us the most? Are we being most influenced by people out there that we never know personally? Or are we following people in our midst in person where we can do life with them one on one? We don't have to just cut out all online influences, but they should not be the people that influence us the most. The people we follow most closely must be people we follow in person, which is the only way we can truly know if someone has this last mark of a person to follow, which is someone who dies to their own needs for the sake of others, someone who dies to their own needs for the sake of others. And we see that in this longer chunk of 2 Corinthians. Here, read it with me. It might be a little bit confusing and we'll break it down, but read with me 7 through 12. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way, as the truth of Christ is in me. This boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you. God knows I do. And what I am doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. Now you might read that and see Paul talk about money and Macedonians again. It's like, are we back to the money series again? Like, we had six weeks in there. What's going on? Like, come off it, man. But this is a totally different situation than the Jerusalem Gift. See, what's going on is that the Corinthians were criticizing Paul for refusing to take their money. Oftentimes the Corinthians would give to teachers that were well to do in their community as patrons, they would give them to them. And that would be like their buy in in the ministry to support the people, to show respect. And the Corinthians are saying, hey, you're withholding this opportunity for me. It's like, you're sinning against me that you're not taking our money. And Paul's just like, y'all, am I seriously sinning against you from not taking my money from you? You Think I don't love you, he says in verse 11. God knows I do. God knows that I love you. Paul is intentional here not to take money from the Corinthians, to not be a burden. Because here's what happens. If Paul takes money from the Macedonians, then they might fall into this idea and this belief that Paul is just like the other apostles. He proves himself that he's not just an amateur preacher by gaining this money from those that are listening to him. And Paul refuses that. He says, absolutely not. I will not let my ministry be anything like these false apostles ministry. Because I don't want you guys to have any ideas in thinking that my ministry and their ministry are on the same playing field. We are preaching different gospels. They are different ministries. I don't want you to come even close to their ministry. He will not. And so he said, no, I will not take money from the Corinthians. He robs other churches, including the Macedonians, because they're poor, but they're freely giving to him. Okay? He's not actually robbing them. If you, like, got that twisted. And this isn't an excuse to go to Dollar General and, like, rob them tonight because Paul did. That's absolutely not the case. No. He's just saying, no, I didn't take from you. I took from these other people because it was okay. It was good for the Macedonians to give to me, but it would be a burden. It would get in the way of my ministry to you if I took money. Because you would be thinking, man, Paul and these false apostles, they're on the same playing field. But think about it. Wouldn't it have been easier if Paul could have taken the Corinthians money, like his ministry in Corinth? Like, he would have been able to put food on the table. He would have been able to do different things. He would have actually been listened to by more people if he had taken money. But he decided, no, I will not take your money. I will die to my needs for the sake of you seeing Christ. I will die to my needs. I will die to my comforts. I'll actually pick up a job as a tent maker while I'm there so that you won't. So you won't have any miscommunication with who is a real teacher and who's not. He dies to his own needs for the sake of theirs when it would have been so much easier just take their money. It would have been easier living easier, people listening to all these things. But he's like, no, that's not it at all. I want you to know that Jesus dies for his people. And I want to emulate Jesus. I love how he says it in verse 10, as the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. He's saying, Christ will be proclaimed in the areas surrounding Achaia because I die to myself in my ministry. People will see Jesus in my ministry because that's how Jesus did his ministry, right? He didn't do his ministry based on fame and recognition. He was born, he grew up in a place of Nazareth, a place that everyone looked at and said, nothing good can come from Nazareth. That was his hometown. That's where he grew up. And he refused to follow the flames of a political uprising in Jerusalem to just be a popular leader that would take the world by storm. He said, no, I came to be a servant. I came not to be served, but to be a servant. He laid aside his identity, his life for the people. He said, I don't count equality with God a thing to be grasped. I'm gonna humble myself to the point of death on the cross. That was the way of Jesus. That was the culmination of Jesus saying, yeah, I'm gonna. I'm going to die to myself. I'm going to let rise to life for these people. And Jesus example and name was Paul's motivation. He died to himself so people would see Jesus because Jesus is who's best for them. Jesus is who's best for them. So we need to ask ourselves, do the people we follow live the same way? Do they die to themselves so that others would see Jesus? Do they care more about. About people seeing Jesus in them or being celebrated, about being recognized as being known? I'm going to tie these points together now. Paul has demonstrated to the Corinthians he is jealously dedicated for their devotion to Christ. By the way, he prioritizes doctrine so people would know Christ and the way he dies to himself so people would see Christ. He's proven. He's demonstrated, he's a proven person worth following. So this is what I need us to lock in and remember this evening. The big idea is only follow proven people dedicated to your devotion. Only follow proven people dedicated to your devotion. Because we want to follow people who will lead us to Jesus, who will help us to love Jesus more. Because he who is who is best for us, Jesus, the perfect groom who died for us, who died for the church to make his bride pure. To make his bride Pure before the eyes of the Father. So what do you need to do now in order to only follow proven people? Can't follow someone if you don't know someone, right? So we need to find a proven person. Find a proven person. You need to find someone who is dedicated to their own devotion to Christ, who loves God, loves the Bible, and loves people, who has proven their dedication through loving the doctrines of God and dying to themselves for the sake of others. And I want to say, if you are a member and a regular attender of Veritas Urbana, I plead with you to find people within this local body to follow, that we would follow each other, to love Jesus more, that we would get to know each other's lives intimately and closely, that we would get to know each other's dedication to our devotion. God has given us the church in this for this very purpose. And so if you struggle to answer and know if anyone does love the Bible well or does love God well and does love people well, start meeting people, start talking with people in this place to find a proven person. Because you can't find a proof. You can't follow a proven person if you don't find a proven person. So that's the first, the second step. Follow a proven person. Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, follow me as I follow Christ. Follow me as I follow Christ. We are born followers. Everyone is following someone. So let it be a proven person who knows what's best for you and wants what's best for you, who desires for you to know more about Jesus and to love Jesus more. And following them can take a number of different forms. When you find that proven person to follow them, it could look like a weekly phone call. It could look like an early morning coffee, a lunch, a dinner. Could be parents hanging out together with their kids. Any of these can lead to the following questions. This is what we need to do in order to follow a proven person, though we need to ask the questions, how is your devotion to Christ? What's helping your devotion to Christ and what's hindering it? Are you believing Jesus is who is best for you? Do you believe that is true? Those questions need to be involved in order to follow a proven person. While you're reading God's Word together, praying together, and as you're working through these questions, confessing sin, reminding each other, Jesus is truly better, Jesus is truly better, let's look at what he's done in God's Word, let's look at what he's done. If you're in a connection group. You have built in proven people, right? You have built in proven people. If you're in a connection group, your leaders and other fellow members who have been following Jesus faithfully, they're right there. Now it's just a matter of following them. Now it's just a matter of taking that next step and following them. And so I challenge you to talk to someone in your group this week and plan an initial meeting to see, hey, how can we be dedicated? How can you help me in my dedication, my devotion to Christ? Would you be dedicated to my devotion to Christ? And as a group, I challenge our groups this week to ask each other, are we jealous for each other's devotion? Do we truly, at a heart level, want what's best for each other? And how can we be more dedicated to each other's devotion to Christ? How can we be more dedicated then? Lastly, if you love Jesus and you're following him faithfully, but maybe there's not people that are following you as you follow Christ. The call to you this evening is to become a proven person. To become a proven person to be followed, to prioritize growing in God's word so that you can help people know Jesus, the true Jesus, more deeply. That you would die to yourself so people could see Jesus in you and grow in the relationship with Christ with you. If you're a Christian, but you feel like you're not a proven person yet, you're discouraged, you don't know enough, you're battling sin. Firstly, you're not alone. And secondly, you might be right. You might not be a person to follow yet, but that doesn't mean you're not a person that can't walk with others. You can walk with others either way, whether you're a proven person or you're desiring to become a proven person to grow in maturity, first become available to invest in others. Tap someone on the shoulder and say, hey, can we start reading the Bible together? Can we start praying together? Let me let you off the hook a bit. You don't have to go up to them and say, hey, I'm a proven person. I'm going to disciple you. That would be weird, right? That would be weird. Simply say, would you want to help each other grow in devotion to Christ? How can we help each other grow in devotion to Christ? Friends, our church needs more proven people and needs more proven people to be dedicated to our devotion to Christ. Otherwise we will be vulnerable to following the wrong people the wrong way. We will be vulnerable to loving distortions of Jesus rather than the true Jesus who is best for us. And our text this evening ends with this dire warning. So let me read this challenging dire warning in the conclusion of our text. But we're going to end with hope. Read with me 2 Corinthians 11 through 13 through 15. The wind turned my page 13 through 15. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. We see more clearly why Paul wants to undermine the false apostles teaching so much, because it is so deceptive. It looks good when it is evil, like Satan disguising himself as an angel of light. And what the false apostles are doing is destructive. It's corruptive, it's harmful. Which is why Paul concludes his thought with their end will correspond with their deeds. Their deeds are destructive, so their end will be destructive. It will be walking down the wide path into eternal destruction. And if the Corinthians are following these super apostles and the distorted Jesus, they are following them straight into the same destination. We don't want that for anyone. We don't want anyone we know to be deceived that way. We don't want anyone, especially in this church, to be deceived in that way. And the beautiful thing is that there's no reason for that. There's no reason that our people, that the people we know that we care about, that we love, need to be deceived. Because if we as a church are jealously dedicated to each other's devotion, we will fight for each other's devotion. We will step in the way when there's distortions of Jesus that are leading our loved ones away from the true Jesus. And we will walk with each other into glory where we will see our risen Savior Jesus face to face and where we will be able to proclaim with the angels, worthy is the Lamb who was slain of all honor and glory and power and blessing. We'll be able to proclaim that together because we are following each other, dedicated to each other's devotion to the one true Jesus who is the absolute best thing for us. So let us as a people be dedicated to each other's devotion. Let us get in the way when there's distortions deceiving the ones that we love. And may we fight for what's best for each other. Let us pray that we would become proven people dedicated to each other's devotion, that we would follow people that are dedicated to our devotion. Pray with me, Father. You are so good and kind. You knew our wayward hearts before we were even made. Before you had even given us life. You knew the ways that we would follow the wrong people the wrong way. That we would doubt your goodness, that we would doubt your truth. And yet you saw us and loved us and cared for us. And you desired what's best for us. And that's why you sent your son, Jesus. You sent him to save us. To ransom us from our sin. To ransom us and take us away from these broken paths so that we can know the true God. The only living God worthy of honor and power. You are so good, Father. So help us to know that. And remember that Jesus is absolutely who's best for us. That our devotion to him is what's best for us. And may we desire to follow people that will lead us to him. Over and over again, we pray this in Jesus name, Amen.