October 3 rd 2022 Monday Night @ First B

12 Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

13 Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.

16 Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.

17 Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

18 For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

19 whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

21 who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

1 Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

1 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

2 Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from the sky, and came and rolled away the stone from the door, and sat on it.

3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

4 For fear of him, the guards shook, and became like dead men.

5 The angel answered the women, “Don’t be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who has been crucified.

6 He is not here, for he has risen, just like he said. Come, see the place where the Lord was lying.

7 Go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead, and behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there you will see him.’ Behold, I have told you.”

8 They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word.

9 As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” They came and took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.

10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go tell my brothers that they should go into Galilee, and there they will see me.”

11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all the things that had happened.

12 When they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave a large amount of silver to the soldiers,

13 saying, “Say that his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.

14 If this comes to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him and make you free of worry.”

15 So they took the money and did as they were told. This saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and continues until today.

16 But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them.

17 When they saw him, they bowed down to him, but some doubted.

18 Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

19 Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things which I say?

1 “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.

2 For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.

3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?

4 Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye;’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye?

5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.

6 “Don’t give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

7 “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.

8 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

9 Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

10 Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent?

11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

12 Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

13 “Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it.

14 How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.

16 By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?

17 Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit.

18 A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit.

19 Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.

20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

22 Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’

23 Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’

24 “Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock.

25 The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock.

26 Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand.

27 The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching,

29 for he taught them with authority, and not like the scribes.

1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.

3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.

5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.

6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

9 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

10 The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;

11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.

13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.

15 For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.

16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.

17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.

19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.

20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

21 I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,

23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, the sin’s law.

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

2 The same came to him by night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’

8 The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?

11 Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.

12 If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

13 No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

15 that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

18 He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

19 This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.

21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”

22 After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them, and baptized.

23 John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came, and were baptized.

24 For John was not yet thrown into prison.

25 There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with some Jews about purification.

26 They came to John, and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, the same baptizes, and everyone is coming to him.”

27 John answered, “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.

28 You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’

29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.

30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

32 What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness.

33 He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.

34 For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.

35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.

36 One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

29 For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

2 Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.

5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

6 If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.

8 “In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.

9 Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.

10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.

11 I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.

13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

14 You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

17 “I command these things to you, that you may love one another.

18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

21 But all these things will they do to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23 He who hates me, hates my Father also.

24 If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father.

25 But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’

26 “When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

27 You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

1 Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

2 Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.

3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.

5 But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved.

6 For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or be shaved, let her be covered.

7 For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.

8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man;

9 for man wasn’t created for the woman, but woman for the man.

10 For this cause the woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.

11 Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord.

12 For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God.

13 Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled?

14 Doesn’t even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

16 But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God’s assemblies.

17 But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.

18 For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it.

19 For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.

20 When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.

21 For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.

22 What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

23 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

24 When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.”

25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.”

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.

29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.

30 For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

31 For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged.

32 But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

33 Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.

1 This is a faithful saying: if a man seeks the office of an overseer, he desires a good work.

2 The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;

3 not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;

4 one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence;

5 (but if a man doesn’t know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the assembly of God?)

6 not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.

7 Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.

8 Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money;

9 holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

10 Let them also first be tested; then let them serve if they are blameless.

11 Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

12 Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

13 For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

14 These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly;

15 but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

16 Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory.

1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s chosen ones, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,

2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began;

3 but in his own time revealed his word in the message with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior;

4 to Titus, my true child according to a common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

5 I left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking, and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you;

6 if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior.

7 For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain;

8 but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober minded, fair, holy, self-controlled;

9 holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him.

10 For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,

11 whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake.

12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.”

13 This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

14 not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.

16 They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.