of Scripture and turn to 3 John, 3 John. And if you're using one of the Bibles that's provided for you, you'll find our passage on page 1,026, 1,026. It's good to see you here this morning, and Lord willing, this morning we'll be wrapping up our series in 3 John. And then in a couple weeks, we'll start our Christmas series in the Gospel of Luke. And I do want to encourage you, as Stephen has earlier in the service, to hand out those outreach cards to identify someone that you can invite to be with us during this Christmas season, a time where people are naturally thinking about the possibility of attending church and about Christ and His birth. And invite folks to come and be with us for that Christmas series. Well, this morning we are going to conclude our series in 3 John, and I'm going to read the letter in its entirety. It's very short, just 15 verses, and then we will focus this morning on verses 13 to 15. So, please follow along as I read God's Word. The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephus, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony. And you know that our testimony is true. Verse 13. I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name. Amen. This is God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for Your Word this morning. We're thankful for this privilege to be gathered together as Your church and to worship You. And Father, we want to worship You now as we hear Your Word. Lord, help us to quiet our minds and our hearts. And Lord, as we hear Your Word, we pray that we would receive it in faith, that we would respond in humility and obedience with praise and worship. Lord, we pray that You would be honored in this time. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. Well, admittedly, this may seem odd. A sermon on three verses, that comprise the final greeting to the shortest letter in the Bible. We might think that these verses here, verses 13 through 15 in 3 John, are just kind of throwaway verses. I mean, if we're honest, when we read through various letters in the New Testament, We have to admit that we tend to skim over the final greetings. We might have determined already that when it comes to the various letters that we find in the New Testament, that really what we're interested in is not the greetings and that sort of thing, but we're interested in the theology and the doctrine. We want to get into those parts of the letter that really have very practical application for our Christian lives. And let me say that I don't think we should emphasize the greetings in these letters in such a way that we would de-emphasize the primary purpose or content of the letters. Having said that though, I don't want us to make the other mistake and to so emphasize the primary purpose or content of these letters that we miss out on some of the riches and blessings that are here found in some of these brief greetings in the New Testament. So here's why I've chosen to preach a sermon on just these few verses, verses 13 through 15 in 3 John. First, just by matter, it's a practical matter, if I had chosen to include verses 13 through 15 in the passage that we looked at last week, which was verses 9 through 12, then I wouldn't have been able to spend very much time at all on verses 13 through 15. It would have just gotten a cursory mention, and I couldn't have done it justice. And so because this is a verse-by-verse study through 3 John, I want us to spend a little bit more time on these verses and to consider what's here. There's another reason, though, and it's a far more important reason. And it's this, that the Lord has taught me over the years that I need these greetings. I need these greetings that we find in these New Testament letters. Over and over again, the Lord has reminded me through these greetings that Christian ministry and pastoral ministry is deeply personal. And I need to be reminded of that as a pastor, and I believe that we need to be reminded of that as a congregation. As you think about it, preaching, and teaching, and casting vision, and organizing events, and serving on ministry teams, and getting tasks done, all of these things are ministry, and we need to recognize that, and they're good things, and we should celebrate that. But it is possible to do all of those things, and at the same time, to not meaningfully engage other people in personal relationships. But what we see in the Scriptures is that truly Christian ministry, gospel ministry, pastoral ministry is deeply personal. It involves people. It involves relationships. It involves friendship. For that reason, I want us to consider two simple but profoundly important truths from our verses this morning. First, gospel ministry is personal. And then secondly, gospel ministry is rooted in friendship. First of all, gospel ministry is personal. Look there in verses 13 to 14, and we read these words. John writes, I had much to write you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Now remember, John is the one who's writing this letter, and he's writing to a man named Gaius. Gaius is a man who is known for the love and the hospitality that he shows to traveling missionaries. And John's letter here that he writes to Gaius actually constitutes the shortest letter that we find in the New Testament and the shortest book in the Bible. Now, if you're looking at your page 3rd John, you might actually be able to see on the same page 2nd John. If you look at 2nd John, you'll notice that there's only 13 verses and in 3rd John there's 15 verses. So there's actually a couple extra verses in 3rd John. But actually 3rd John has less words, just 219 words. So it is actually the shortest book in the Bible. And so we might deduce from that, well, it's the shortest letter, it's the shortest book in the Bible. John must not have had much to say to Gaius. But that actually is not right. In fact, John says here that he had much more to write to Gaius. And why doesn't he write more? He says in verse 13, I had much to write to you, and here it is, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. Now that might seem a little strange to us, because he says, I would rather not write with pen and ink. I mean, how else would John write to Gaius? Would he type him an email, or send him a private message on Facebook, or something like that? I don't think John here is talking about the means of writing, like I'd rather I'd rather write with crayon. I don't think that's what John is saying here. Rather, John is saying he would rather not write at all. He would rather not write at all. And why? He tells us there in verse 14, because he says, I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. And John comes to the conclusion that that would be much better. See, John can, because they're distant, because they're separated from each other by distance, John can write letters, and Gaius can write letters back to John, and there can be correspondence, and he can know something of what's going on, and that's a blessing, and that's a good thing. But John concludes that it would be much, much better for him to be present, that when he's present, when he's with Gaius, that he can look him in the eye, face to face, he can know better what's going on circumstantially there in the situation that Gaius finds himself in, and that would be much better. You know, as we relate to others, as we build relationships with others, we can be thankful for the many methods of communication that we have today. Of course, letters can be very effective in communicating with others. One of the great things about letters is that you have a record of your communication. So you can go back and you can look at the letters that have been written in the past and you can see what's been said and so forth. Actually, much of the New Testament is the preservation of letters that the apostles wrote to these early Christian churches in the first century A.D. Also today, given modern technology, we can text others. And so texting is a great way to check in with someone. We can also call someone. Phone calls can be a great way to develop a relationship with someone and talk to folks who maybe are far away. We have Facebook and Twitter and so forth where we can keep in touch with old friends. And so all of these things that have come as a result of modern technology, we can be thankful for. There's much good in them. But we also recognize, and maybe this should be especially reaffirmed in our age of social media, that there is quite nothing like sitting down with someone, personal, face-to-face contact, looking one in the eye, and having a conversation. And that's what John says here. He looks forward to the opportunity to be with Gaius so he can be in his presence. He can look him in the eye. He can converse with him personally. I think it's interesting to note that it is John who is writing these words because John actually identifies himself at the beginning of this letter as the elder. It's there in verse 1, the elder to the beloved Gaius. And so John was an elder. He was a pastor. He was more than that. He was also an apostle. But he wasn't less than that. He was a pastor. And what we see here is that John is eager to be present with Gaius, to talk with him face-to-face in order that he might pastor him, that he might care for him, that he might shepherd him. That should, in fact, be the heart of every pastor, to personally shepherd and to personally care for God's people. We see this all throughout the New Testament. We see it represented here in the example of John. Now, some of you here this morning may have never been in a church before that has elders. And you might wonder, well, what do elders do? Well, we believe that according to what the scriptures teach, that an elder has four primary responsibilities. Elders are called to pray, to teach, to lead, and to shepherd. To pray and teach, to lead, and to shepherd. And shepherding is one of the primary responsibilities that an elder or a pastor has. Those two terms are used interchangeably in the New Testament. It's the same office, just two different terms used to identify the same office. And let me just say that we here as the elders of Crawford Avenue Baptist Church, we do have a desire to fulfill this aspect of our ministry. Our desire here, and I'll speak on behalf of the elders here at Crawford Avenue, is not just to be an administrative board for the church that makes decisions, but rather our desire is to shepherd and care for the congregation here at Crawford Avenue. Those whom God has assembled together to be the church here at Crawford Avenue. So a few things that we have done, and let me just mention a few things that we've done to position ourselves so that we can personally care for and shepherd the congregation. I kind of put these things in two categories. One is prayer, and the other is presence. So first of all, we want to make it our intent to pray for you, the congregation. One of the things that I try to do personally is to consistently pray through our membership directory. So I take a few names each day. I don't always get it done every day, but I try to be faithful in this. Take a few names each day and pray through the membership directory. When I do that, one of the things that I often remind myself of is that there are some people who if their pastor does not pray for them, who will pray for them? Surely, one of the responsibilities of an elder, of a pastor, of a congregation, is that he would regularly pray for the congregation. Another thing that we have done as elders is that we intend to pray together for the congregation, for the body of believers. And so when we have, once a month, we have an elders meeting that is member focused. And before that meeting, what we will do, and some of you may have received emails like this, we will send out, maybe I will send out two or three emails to different members in the church and just ask, how can we be praying for you as your elders? The other elders will do that as well. And then we come back and we all report on the two or three people that we reached out to, their requests, what they had shared, and then we pray together for those individuals. Another thing that we do is that a couple times a year, the elders get together for longer extended meetings for planning and for prayer. And we do this twice a year. And when we get together, we get together for two days. And we oftentimes will set aside significant amount of time to pray together through the membership directory. So we want to care and shepherd the congregation by being faithful to pray for the body. The other category that I would speak of is to be present. We want to be present with the church. Here we see the wisdom of God in the New Testament by designing and structuring the local church so that the church is led by a plurality of elders. Now what I mean by plurality is more than one. So I serve here at Crawford Avenue as the lead pastor, and I have the primary responsibility for preaching God's Word. But we actually have six pastors or elders here at the church, and we all have responsibility for leading and caring for and teaching and praying over the congregation. Now in a church our size, it's probably not feasible that every single person would have a deep personal relationship with the lead pastor. That's just practically not doable. But we believe it is practical that every single member of our church would have a personal relationship, at least at some level, with an elder or a pastor in our church. And that is our goal. And so some of the things we do is we are intentional to each of the elders are involved in a community group. In fact, most of the elders lead a community group. Now, I'm the only elder that does not. Ross McDaniel leads our community group, but I'm there and I participate. And all of our other elders lead a community group. Not only that, but we've intentionally designed our cohorts on Sunday morning so that in each of our cohorts, there's at least one elder. These are ways that we can be present and opportunities that we can be getting to know people and y'all can be getting to know elders in the church. In addition to that, we've started what we call Elder Plus 8 events. And we do these about once a quarter, where you have the opportunity to sign up for one of these events. And if you sign up for one of these events, then basically, after you sign up, you're assigned to one of the elders, and you're invited to their home, and you're able to meet with the elder and his wife and a few other members who are also invited. And there's no real agenda, just hang out, get to know each other, spend time with one another. There's other things I could say as well, but I want you to know that our desire as elders here at Crawford Avenue is to personally care for and shepherd the congregation. Please pray for us as we attempt to do that. I want to make one more application on this point, though, before I move on. Not only is our desire to personally care for and shepherd the congregation that is here, but we also have a desire to personally visit those pastors and missionaries that we have sent out from our congregation to plant churches or to serve as missionaries in other places. Thinking about it in particular as it relates to this letter, John is writing to a man named Gaius, and Gaius is known for his love and hospitality for traveling missionaries, and John is very concerned about this. John is writing to commend Gaius in this work, and he's going to visit Gaius in large part so that he can partner with Gaius in this work of supporting and showing hospitality to missionaries. And so we recognize that as we send folks from our congregation, we have a responsibility to then, in many ways, go alongside them and to continue, as a church and as elders in particular, to care for them and support them and encourage them. Oftentimes, church planters and pastors and missionaries face real challenges. They can get discouraged. They get spiritually dry, just like any other Christian. And there's things that we can do to come alongside them. We can text them and email them. We can send them letters. And all of those things are wonderful. But as John recognizes here, it's all the better if we can be with them face to face. to talk and encourage and support and love. One of the things that we've intentionally done is in this next year we're going to be voting on our budget for 2020 in just a few weeks in our members meeting that will be coming up in December. And one of the things we included in the budget was some funds so that we can begin to send an elder or two out to visit our planters and pastors and missionaries where they are in the field. Now some of those folks we might only get to once a year, once every two years, but we want to intentionally plan to do that, to be present with them, to spend some time with them on site where they are, seeing where they minister, hearing their concerns, hearing their victories, praying for them and encouraging them. A friend of mine is an elder in another local church, and several years back, he and another elder in that church, they went to visit one of the missionaries from their church who was serving in Central Asia. And they just stayed for two or three days, and this missionary family that was serving in Central Asia, when they went to visit them, this missionary family was going through a very difficult time. Actually, they had recently been kicked out of the country where they had been serving for a number of years. So they were in a new country. They were moving into a new apartment. It was a whole new context. And two elders went, visited them, and they said, really, the visit was kind of chaotic and crazy. And there was all this transition taking place. They had small children, and so they tried to spend time with them while they were there. They took some long walks together. They would eat dinner together at night, but the dinners were kind of crazy, because the kids would melt down, and it was just kind of chaotic. And then when the kids went to bed at night, they would spend just a few moments with the missionaries, hearing about the ministry going on there, reading scripture with them, praying for them. When they left, the elders thought, I don't really know how well that trip went. It's crazy, chaotic, we didn't have much time in and out. But then a few years later, that missionary family was back home on furlough, and they had the opportunity to come to their home church and share with the board of elders how they were doing and give them an update on the ministry. And when they did, to the surprise of these two elders who had visited a few years earlier, they shared how much that trip had meant to them. They said, in fact, that during that season, they were considering, because it was so hard, they had been kicked out of this country, there was opposition to their ministry in so many different ways, they were considering just coming home. They thought their time on the mission field was over. But God used that trip, that messy, chaotic trip, that personal visit, to reignite their passion for missions, to reignite their desire to be in some of the hardest places in the world and share Christ. And they stayed. You know, a few years later, they were actually allowed access into that original country, access back into that country. And today, they are in that country serving on a team of a couple of dozen missionaries trying to reach that nation with the gospel. You know, the church could have in that situation, and I'm sure they did these things, they could have sent a text, they could have sent an email, they could have written a letter, and all those are wonderful things and I would encourage us all to do those things. But sometimes that's just not enough, right? Like John says to Gaius here, I long to be with you. I long to be present with you. I long to look you in the face and look you in the eyes and to share and to talk and to pray and to support you. And my friends, true Christian ministry, gospel ministry, pastoral ministry must include that element of personal interaction and care and ministering and shepherding one another. For the Apostle John, for the Pastor John, Christian ministry was deeply personal. Gospel ministry is rooted in friendship. Gospel ministry is rooted in friendship. Look there in verse 15. We read these words. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends each by name. So here you see in verse 15 that John offers Gaius a common salutation in that day. He says, Peace be to you. Although it's possible that John has even a more specific intent in mind given the unrest that Diotrephus is causing in the church. We talked about this last week. We read it in the verses earlier. There's this man named Diotrephus. He's refusing the Christian missionaries and his home. Not only is he doing that, those who welcome the missionaries into their home, he's excommunicating them from the church, so there's this unrest and turmoil. We don't know for sure, but perhaps John is particularly offering this greeting because he has in mind that he wants Gaius to know the peace of Christ, the peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding, even in the midst of this opposition and turmoil. But then notice that John goes on to speak of Christian fellowship and gospel partnership in terms of friendship. He says there in verse 15, greet you." Now, who would these friends be? These would have been Christian friends who were with John. So John's the one writing the letter. Christian friends who were with him. They might have been fellow elders, church members, missionary companions. And John says, the friends who are here with me, they greet you. And then he goes on to say, and greet the friends. So these would have been Christian friends who were with Gaius. Maybe other church leaders there, church members at Gaius' church, traveling missionaries who were coming through. He says, greet the friends who are there with you. Now, we heard this actually earlier in our service as we were reading different passages of scripture and so forth, but it's important for us to see this, that friendship characterizes Christian fellowship and gospel partnership because Jesus has chosen to be our friend. Isn't it a beautiful passage that we read earlier this morning in John chapter 15? Now John actually, so John writes 3 John, right? He also writes the Gospel of John. And John records these words in the Gospel of John. So John probably was present when Jesus spoke these words. He might have had like a front row seat. We would imagine he would have. He was one of the 12 disciples. When Jesus said these words, greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." Isn't it amazing that the Lord Jesus has chosen to relate to us as friends? Even though we were enemies to God, we resisted God, we hated God, the Lord Jesus became our greatest friend because He showed us the greatest act of love by laying down His life on our behalf so that we might become His friends. Jesus at the cross gave his life and paid the penalty we deserve for our sins so that we could be forgiven and be given life now and life forever with God. And then Jesus says, you are my friends. I died for you so that you might be my friend. You know, there are some friends in life that are so close, that are so trusted, that are so loved, that if they have a friend, we just assume their friend will be our friend, right? Do you have some friends like that? I have friends like that. Friends that'll say, hey, Bert, here's this person I want you to meet. His name is Joe, and he's my friend. And when he says that, I just assume Joe and I are gonna be friends, right? Why? Because he's friends with my friend. And I trust him, and I love him. If you're friends with him, then you're friends with me. Listen, my friends, this is the way we should think about Christian fellowship. This is the way we should think about gospel partnership. We have a friend, and his name is Jesus. And if you are friends with Jesus, then you are my friend. This is the basis of gospel partnership. Jesus has made us his friend and because we are his friend, we are friends with one another. And so listen, this is important. Gospel partnership is not kind of this cold, sterile mission. Like, we've got this goal to plant this many churches or see this many people come to faith in Christ. It's just like, you know, this cold, sterile mission that we go after. It's not just an impersonal business objective. It is deeply personal. If we are committed to the mission of God, I think we see this all throughout the New Testament, not just here in 3 John. If we are committed to the mission of God, friendship is not optional. Because the mission of God functions and flows out of Christian friendship. Christ makes us His friend. As a result, we are friends with one another. We love each other. We care for one another. We support one another. We encourage one another. And it's out of those relationships then that people are sent. It's out of those relationships that mission is birthed. It's out of those relationships that the mission moves forward. John loves Gaius. John's not just using Gaius. to accomplish an objective. He says in the first verse, the elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. He loves this man. And it's out of that love that they find themselves shoulder to shoulder, side to side on mission for Christ. To press this point a little bit further, notice in verse 15, John goes on to say, the friends greet you, greet the friends, and here it is, last three words of the text, each by name. Now I just think we should pause there and consider that. For the Apostle John, the church that he is writing to is not just merely a collective group of people. The church is a group of people made up of individuals and each one of those individuals has a name and each one of them matters. Again, this is rooted in the personal nature of the Lord Jesus himself. In John chapter 10, John records how Jesus identified himself as the good shepherd and how, and Jesus is talking in John chapter 10 about how he cares for the sheep and he shepherds the sheep. And in John chapter 10, verse three, we read, hear his voice. This is what Jesus says. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. I think this is really precious because we learn here that in Jesus's mind, we are not just hired workers. We are not just workers who will get the job done. You know? Because listen, in ministry it's tempting to treat people like that. Missionaries can get treated that way. Volunteers can get treated that way. Pastors and church planters can get treated that way. They're just there to get the mission done. But do you see how personal this is, how relational this is? To the Lord Jesus, we're not just hired hands, we are sheep, we are friends. He knows each one of us by name. Listen, whether or not we are useful to the mission. And all of us will reach a point in our lives where, or most of us will, where maybe we can't see how we're useful to the mission at all. And Jesus still loves us as a sheep, knows us as a friend, cares for us by name. So it's that kind of personal love and friendship that should mark our fellowship and partnership in the gospel. John Piper wrote a article a few years back, and the article was entitled, I think it was entitled, the best leaders remember your name. And it was very challenging to me because I'm not good at remembering names. And I try, but I'm not always good at it. And the article was on Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16 is the last chapter in Paul's letter to Rome. And that chapter is basically a long list of names, and Paul is saying, greet so-and-so, and greet so-and-so, and greet this household of so-and-so, and so forth. And I think there's like 28 names in Romans chapter 16. And John Piper makes the point, Paul had actually never been to Rome. And yet he knows all of these individuals within the church, and he takes the time to list them by name and greet them individually. Now here's just a very practical application for us. Let's try to be intentional to know each other's name, right? Every single person that is here this morning matters. Every single person here has a name and that name represents something about that person in terms of an individual person who has particular strengths, particular weaknesses, particular trials, particular difficulties. Let's know that individual. as best we can. Now, I don't say that to make you feel guilty if you forget someone's name or don't know someone's name. We need to show each other a lot of grace in this area. I know for me, as our church has grown, it is more and more difficult for me to know everybody's name. Again, I try. Please show me grace. But I want to know everybody's name. And listen, if you think, well, it seems impossible to know everybody's name in this room, that may be a bit overwhelming, I admit. But let me ask you this. Do you think it might be possible for you to know the name of every person in your community group? That would be much more doable, wouldn't it? And you could start there and then just try to broaden that. Use your membership directory, just broaden that. Talk to people after church on Sunday, before church on Sunday. Let's get to know each other's names. Let's at least be intentional to try. And I will go out on a limb and say this, that if you know someone's name, you probably have a better chance of becoming their friend. So these are the two truths I want us to see in our passage. First, gospel ministry is personal. And secondly, gospel ministry is rooted in friendship. Now, just to wrap things up, you know what this means, right? This means that involvement and membership in the local church cannot be distant, nor can it be removed, nor can it be virtual. Listen, I am glad, another aspect of modern technology, I am glad that there are sermons online and podcasts and things like that. So like, if you miss a sermon, maybe you're sick or you're out of town or something, you can go back and listen to it. Maybe there was a sermon that was particularly encouraging to you and you wanna go back and listen to it again. That's a wonderful thing. We can be thankful for that. But let's not be misled here. It is vital for every single Christian that if you are to know the benefits of Christ's church, if you are to know the benefits of being a member of a local church, it is absolutely vital that you be present. That you be present often. Consistently. Like year after year after year. Because that's the only way these types of warm, personal, Christ-centered relationships and friendships can evolve. John Stott, commenting on these verses, writes, quote, God surely means each local fellowship to be sufficiently small and closely knit for the pastors and the members to know each other personally and to be able to greet each other by name. The good shepherd calls his own sheep by name. Undershepherds and sheep should know each other by name also." End of quote. Now listen, I don't read that quote to make a slight against big churches. I don't have anything against big churches and that sort of thing. And I praise God for the growth we've experienced and I pray that we will experience more. But we are not a megachurch. But don't be discouraged by that. Let's make the most of that. Let's know each other personally, warmly, affectionately. Let's be friends in the gospel. You know what might happen as a result? there's a good chance that the more we become friends in the gospel, the more effective we will be in accomplishing Christ's mission. The two are related, because when we go out on mission, we'll be friends on mission, loving and supporting and encouraging one another, and we will be a better sending church as well, because we will be all the more eager, like John is here, to support those who have gone out from us church planters, pastors, missionaries, because our sending will be the overflow, the overflow of strong, personal, affectionate, Christ-centered friendship. Let's pray and ask that God would give us the grace to see that happen. Let's pray. Father, we do thank You and praise You for Your Word. And we recognize, Lord, that all of it, every bit of it, it's profitable for us. Lord, we thank you that not only here in 3 John, but throughout the New Testament, we see over and over again this warmth, this personal and affectionate relationships, Lord. And Lord, we want that for ourselves. We thank you that you have granted us that in so many ways. We thank you for the relationships here at Crawford Avenue, the friendships, the love, the affection. Lord, we pray that you would grow that all the more. And Lord, we pray that as you do, that it wouldn't become a cul-de-sac where we're just looking inward at one another. But Father, we pray that that love would overflow into mission. Lord, we pray that our desire to see more and more people come to faith in Christ, our desire to see churches planted, our desire to see missionaries sent to the unreached peoples of the world, that all of that would be fueled out of a deep personal relationship that we have with you and with one another, out of love that we have for you and for one another. So Lord, take this word now and we pray that you would apply it to our hearts. We pray that you would apply it to us as a church body. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray.