I'm going to read the whole book here. Paul, prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy, our brother, and Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and our beloved Aphia, And Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints. that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledgment of thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed in thee, brother. Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee Being such, and one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in times past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. whom I have sent again, thou therefore receive him that is retained with me, but in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel, but without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever, not as a servant, but above a servant, a brother, beloved, specially to me. But how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord? If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. And if he hath wronged thee or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with my own hand. I will repay it. Albeit, I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord, refresh my bowels in the Lord. Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote thee. But withal, prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. There, salute the Epaphras, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Actually, Brother Zach, will you open us in prayer? Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us now as we look into your word and as we've read your word to receive it. And I pray that you'd help Brother Brandon as he delivers this lesson. I pray that you'd help him give him the words to say and help us to really apply your word in our lives. I pray that your spirit would work and minister to us now. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. This book of Philemon is an interesting book of Paul's, unlike some of the other books that are written where Paul authored by inspiration of God. And so what I want to do is just walk through the entire book, verse by verse, and look at the things. A lot of times this book, and I was listening to some sermons on it over the past couple of months. A lot of times it goes into writing the story, which is so great about Onesimus and Paul's plea for Onesimus to get... But there's quite a bit more in this book than just that story, which is a great story in and of itself. But I want to start here by how Paul addresses himself in this letter. And he addresses himself as what? What does he call himself? He's a prisoner. A prisoner of Jesus Christ. Why do you think he did that? How else did he address others when he wrote these books in the Bible? Bondservant. There's basically three ways that he starts out the books in the New Testament. And here is one which is unique. Paul calls himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ as the starting point. This is how he's introducing himself in this letter. Albeit known to Philemon and the others in the letter, but he's addressing himself as a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul obviously calls himself a prisoner in other passages of scripture, like in Acts 23 in verse 18, Paul the prisoner, and in Ephesians chapter 3 in verse 1, I Paul the prisoner of the Lord, and in 2 Timothy chapter 1 in verse 8, our Lord be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner." So he refers to himself as a prisoner in other passages of Scripture, but here he's introducing himself in the beginning. How else, if you look back at all the books of the Bible, how else does Paul introduce himself? An apostle. What's that? Yep, yep. So first and second, Timothy addresses himself as an apostle. Where else in the Bible does he address himself as an apostle? What other books? What's that? Romans 1.1. No. Romans 1.1? Romans 1.1. My Bible says, Paul a servant of Jesus Christ and then called to be an apostle. Yeah, okay, gotcha. No, that's right, that's right. But in the initial stages, addressing himself, yeah. What's that? Well, First Corinthians too, yeah. I was just talking about the initial introduction. Now Paul mentions all this stuff throughout a lot of the books. But how he initially introduces himself. So you have First Timothy, also in Colossians. He's addressing an apostle. And Ephesians and Galatians and First Corinthians in the books of Corinthians. Now, what's unique about those books in the Bible? Timothy, Colossians, Ephesians, Galatians, Corinthians, what do they have in common? They are letters. Do they have anything else in common? What's 1 Timothy about? What's Timothy about? What is that book, what are some major things that Timothy is addressing in 1 Timothy? Confessorial issues, he's talking about how to discharge his duty as an evangelist there. Okay, what about Colossians? What's that? Anything unique there? I mean, he was exhorting them, but that ministry wasn't a direct result of Paul's ministry. He was a prison epistle there. He was just exhorting these people. And what about Ephesians? This was, Ephesians is kind of a common concern for all Christians. I mean, even though there's, you know, look, I'm just generalizing here, okay? There's a lot of other aspects and doctrine and so forth that are found as threads in all of this. And in Galatians, what was going on in Galatians in that book? It's pop quizzes, you know, that happen in Sunday school. What's going on in Galatians? Because of what? What was the problem there? What was he warning them against? He called them foolish Galatians, right? They were false teachers, right? Paul asked him what moved them from the faith, and so he was talking to them about these things that they needed to correct, and what about Corinthians? Yeah, and in Corinthians they had some issues, right? Some major, major issues. Okay, so when he's talking about apostles, if you read those books and you look at them, it's very clear that he is needing to correct something or addressing something that requires his, you know, hey, I'm an apostle, I have authority here, I know what I'm talking about. Now, let's back up here and think about this a little bit before we talk about some of the others, but different circumstances. You know, for instance, I have a secular job, obviously, and in different circumstances, I may introduce myself differently. and maybe you're in that way too. Sometimes if you're in a meeting and you don't want to be noticed or cared for or, you know, there's no value in it. I may just, you may just introduce yourself as my name and that's it, you know, or I work at X company. If I'm in a meeting, however, and I want to get right to the point, on something, and I want people to know that I can make the decision, I will introduce myself much differently. I will introduce myself with my full title of what I do, because what is it? It comes with a level of authority. And so, you know, in different circumstances, you may address yourself as a different, if we're in a meeting or if we're in a group and someone has a doctrinal question and, you know, no one knows, all of us in here, And someone has a question, Pastor McDowell may say, I'm the pastor here, and here's what I have to say. Because that comes with some indication of authority. And I think you see that here in these writings with Paul. Now, in Titus Philippians, in the first part of Romans, thanks for the gin, what does Paul address himself as there? A servant. And so these were the book of Titus. Why was that in Philippians? Why were those books important to Paul? Why were those people important? Who is Titus? Did Paul have any kind of affection toward Titus? Did he know him well? Yeah, he was a convert of Paul. He called him a companion and a laborer. He was dear to Paul. And he addresses himself as a servant, Paul's servant. And in Philippians, Paul helped plant that church, right? But, you know, in Philippians, that work was a small work in the beginning, if you remember, and then grew. But Paul had some hard sufferings in Philippi. And in that Philippians, he was scourged and so forth. And so he addresses those folks as servants. High Paul's servant. And then here in Philemon is quite a different scenario where he's addressing himself as prisoner. And the prisoner here has the idea of no comfort and no honor. And so, given that you understand what is going on here in this letter, why do you think Paul would have initiated this letter, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, to Philemon here? Why do you think that? Why wouldn't he say, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ? Remember, these are inspired words of God here. Every word is profitable for our instruction and righteousness and doctrine and so forth. So why, I think it can't be overlooked, and we shouldn't overlook the third word here, that why didn't he address himself as an apostle here? How might that have changed the dynamic of what he's asking for? Why didn't he address himself as a servant? Why a prisoner? Why do you think? He's trying to be humble and subservient to the master, which is Philemon, when Nesmus was a slave that ran away. So he's appealing to him not with the authority to give the impression he's over Philemon, but he's really under Philemon in what he's asking, plus he's also a prisoner physically. If you think about it, Paul, anybody could have easily probably started this letter saying, you know, I'm the great apostle Paul. Listen to what I have to say. Or even I'm the servant of, which has, I think, a rather different connotation of. But he puts himself way under here, starts the letter off as I am a prisoner. even though there's all these things that are going on that I have potentially done, I am certainly coming to you Philemon in a way that I am willing to put all of the things aside and put myself really under everything. Now he does say I'm a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I think it's worth of note there whenever you look, and especially in comparison to the other books, this is a fairly unique one where he starts this out as Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. So, Paul here, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, so Paul and Timothy here, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer. Now, Paul identifies a bunch of fellow laborers throughout his book. Can you name any of them? Aside from the one we just mentioned here, because that's cheating. Who else is Paul's fellow laborers? There's a lot of them. Several of them. Who were they? Do you remember? Uh-huh. Yeah, at the end of the letter. That's also kind of cheating, Brother Pelicone. No, I'm just kidding. It's okay. Yeah, at the end of the letter here, he mentions Marcus, and Aristarchus, and Demas, and Lucas, and yeah, all of us. Who else? Greet Aquila and Priscilla, my helpers in Christ Jesus. The helpers is the same exact word here as fellow labors. Yep, Epaphroditus. I have a hard time saying that word. I practice this like 25 times. But that guy in Philippians 2.25, Yet I supposed it necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants. Who else? Titus, in 2 Corinthians 8 and 23. This guy named Urbane, or Urbine, it is Urbane. Romans chapter 16 and verse 9, he calls him our helper. Timothy, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 and 2, and then again in Romans 16, 21. justice, and then all of those people listed there at the end of our passage here in Philemon. And he calls them fellow laborers. And what is a fellow laborer? When you think of a fellow laborer, what does that mean? Yeah, a companion in your work. Just somebody who's working along with you. And Pastor McDowell was at a Wednesday sermon, talked about the fellow laborers that worked, and Paul was able to articulate all of those. So here's my question to you. Who's your companion in the work of the gospel that we're doing? Me, thank you. And you. If you had to list them out, like fellow labors, people that are doing stuff with you to get the work of the Gospel out, who is helping you do that? How long would your list be? I bet Paul's was longer than what I've articulated here. But who would they be? Who could you write out that are helping you? Who do you go out on visitation with? Who do you call when you need to go out and talk to somebody? Yeah. Every member of this church that is saved should be on all of our lists. My question is, are we? Are we actively being fellow laborers together? to where, I mean if you read through these passages of Scripture, all the ones that I talked about in Thessalonians, and in Romans, and in 2nd Corinthians, and Philippians, and Colossians, and here in Philemon, it's like there's no thought, like it's just a second nature, that these are the people that are actively involved in helping me get the work of the Gospel out. Like how could I do this without these people? And especially when you look at it, how how Paul addresses them as a result, like, these are my fellow laborers, I am a prisoner, I am a servant, I am an apostle of Jesus Christ, and these are the people that are working with me. Well, I don't know, like, my list isn't as long as I had hoped it would be. So there's two parts in that. One, we have to be active in actually getting the gospel out to have a fellow laborer. Like, we have to be laboring ourselves. And so how can I help you reach those people who are at work that you're trying to reach? How can I be a fellow laborer with those? There are a few people who, you know, I've had the opportunity to witness to at work, but I don't know that I could, just to be honest, that I've shared that labor with anybody to any great effect. And I wonder, you know, why isn't the message getting through? Well, maybe it's because I haven't asked somebody to help me. If Paul needed some help, I probably need some help too. And I think it's also because I'm just giving you my testimony because I think that it's just me, you know, I'm the one that's active, involved, and you know, I'll just say whatever I need to say whenever I need to say it, and you know, I'll try to listen to God and that kind of thing, but this fellow laborer, am I really laboring in trying to win them to Christ? If I had to give myself a grade, I don't know that it would be an A+. How about you? Those people that you're around every day. Is it enough work that you need a fellow laborer with you? The Lord knows exactly what you're doing and we may be wise. So in that respect, we're fellow labors with each other as we pray for each other. But I want to make you better fellow labors. I want to bring you information about specific people and things that are coming up where I think that I may have an opportunity. And yeah, we should be all praying for one another. And I'm sure that most of us do that. I do that. I'm sure you do that to a degree. but more of a passing thought rather than an active laboring together. And so I can almost assure you that these people that Paul mentioned, the fellow labors, we're doing more than just praying. I don't want to take anything away from the prayers that we do, but at least let's pray, at least let's labor together in prayer, where we're sharing specifics about how we can help each other in these regards. It's just a thought, when I study a book, I try to go through every single word and look at it and not just hit right to the main great story here, which there is a great story here and we'll get to that. Okay, so in verse two, in our beloved Aphia and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house. Now, Aphia, who is Aphia? Or how should I say, who do you think Aphia is? Philemon's wife? Yeah, I mean, I think she could be. That's what, like basically, the commentators who read here will be like, they're emphatic about this is Philemon's wife. I mean, I tend to, can understand that and it even makes some sense. I mean, he's writing this letter about an SMS and if He makes mention of Athia before even Archippus, which is a fellow servant, probably a co-pastor there with Philemon, which makes sense if he's talking about forgiveness for Onesimus because she would have been in charge of making sure that the servants did what they were supposed to do, running the house and so forth. And so that does make some sense. But regardless, she's mentioned here in this letter. And Paul does mention her before Archippus. And then he says, fellow soldier. And he identifies Archippus here as a fellow soldier. And that is, this word has the idea of an association and labors and conflicts for the cause of Christ. So, one here is just a companion in the work, and the other, as a fellow soldier, has the idea of, I am with you in your labors and in your conflicts. And so I don't know all the details here, because Archippus is only mentioned in Colossians chapter four and verse 17, where Paul says, and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it. And so, we're, That's how most people assume that he's a co-pastor here with Philemon. But he mentions here that he is an associate in labors and conflicts for the cause of Christ. So no doubt, this guy had been with Paul during some pretty hard times. Conflicts and labors. Just my guess. Which brings me to the conclusion that the work of the Lord isn't just about going and talking to somebody and necessarily trying to win them over, but there is labor and conflict. We know that Paul went through a lot of stuff. These Christians in these early days endured great level of persecution and all kinds of things. There is a lot going on as a result of their labor into the gospel. This is a fellow soldier. I think he takes it up a notch here with Archippus. And he also calls Epaphroditus a fellow soldier in Philippians chapter two and verse 25. He calls him my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier. And so that list narrows down quite a bit. There's only two people that Paul brings mention here who's a fellow soldier. And so you have your fellow laborers, right? And then you have some fellow soldiers who are in the battle with you to win people to Christ. Now, everybody here probably fall under that fellow laborer, but who are your fellow soldiers? When the times get tough, who do you, becomes challenging, who do you go to? There's a few people in this room that I would go to, there's a few people outside of this room that I would go to, that I have gone to. And you know who you are because I went to you. Because sometimes stuff is tough, right? When I come over to your house and sit down at your kitchen table to deal with a tough circumstance and situation, you know who your fellow soldiers are. for the Pelican? And that is a challenge for a lot of people, and me included, not to let the affairs of this life us get entangled in because it's so easy to do. It is so easy. And if you're entangled in the affairs of this life, then you may not be available when I need a fellow soldier. Are you going to be available at 2 o'clock in the morning if I need you? Who would you call? at 3 a.m. whenever you are laboring and something happens, who are you calling that you know will be there for you? Or if you showed up at their house, would open the door. Or are we too busy? Are we running around and they're like, you know, we're so entangled that we don't have a fellow soldier that we can count on. Or we're not fellow soldier material for others to count on. Does somebody else have their hand up? Well, there were two here. I don't know, there are probably more fellow soldiers of Paul's, but he calls out to here, as he's written in Inspired Word of God, the point here is that that list is probably shorter than the fellow laborers in your life, in our lives, and it is in mine, for sure. Any other thoughts? Fellow laborers, fellow soldiers, we need them both. And Paul addresses them here, and he's able to bring the situation of Onesimus in the vein of that. He's calling them to a place of no honor and humility, a prisoner. I'm putting myself under there, and listen, you're my fellow laborers and fellow soldiers. We've done a lot of stuff together for the cause of Christ. And so I'm coming to you here in this letter, because I love you. And he talks about that in a minute too. And then he also makes mention of the church in thy house, so clearly the house of Philemon. There are a lot of churches in houses here. We know that they did not have necessarily the ability or whatever, but most of the churches you read here are in other people's houses. We have to stop here and read 1 Timothy 3 and 15. But if I tarry long, that thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. So what this is is the same that we have here. This is the pillar and the ground of truth. And we need to make sure that it always is that here, and it is and has been. But in Acts chapter 8, Romans chapter 16, and 1 Corinthians chapter 16, Colossians 14-15, and here in Philemon chapter 2, all of these are referencing the church that was in the house, or in a house. And so you read that all through there. And I know that probably, and I believe that if they had the opportunity to have a church like this that they would have, but they did not. But I also think that it bears in mind that it's easy to come here and do church, isn't it? I mean, if we were gonna have church in our house, would that change your behavior at all? If the church was at my house, aside from making us crazy to try to clean everything on Saturday, I mean, would that change the behavior of our house? What if we had to come to your house? Would anything change? I don't know. Maybe not. But I do know that I would like a little bit more church in my house every now and then. What do we do when we come into church? Fellowship. Worship. What else? Anything else? Edify, sing. Do we do these things in our house? I mean, the church here, the church is still in our houses, just our families. But do we do those things, or is it a different environment altogether? If we said, you know what, everybody, we've got 20 minutes, let's all go over to John's house and we'll have the morning worship service at John's house instead of here. And we may go to the environment in your home, where now they're singing and rejoicing and edifying and praising God and fellowshipping and edifying one another. Do we have that same level here as we do in our houses? I'm not saying we get rid of the church building, but I'm saying we should put a little bit more of the church emphasis in what we do into our homes. Brother John? And I think of time spent at difficult times, and have been kind of worthy to be a part of. Or a time when we've had, maybe violent, we've had different meetings in people's houses where we've had impacts. But that comes to mind to be kind of worthy, to be kind of worthy to have someone come over at 11, 12 o'clock at night and to be able to help, or be a part of to, you know, just work together, maybe a different thing, but, you know, to have that wisdom that someone thinks they can trust. You know, just different things like that. I just look at what we've had in the past and growth and things like that. And yes, we've had potential and whatnot. But because to become good, because we've been able to I mean, maybe, can I put it like this? And I think that's what we're trying to do. What I do know is that churches were in people's houses in the New Testament, and some pretty great things happened as a result of that. And maybe I could say it a different way, how many times have you had people over at your house and church broke out? If I could put it that way. I don't know. Like I'm just saying that there's something to think about as a result of what we're seeing here. Like that may be the best thing for us, that it's such a normal when you're with your fellow laborers and fellow soldiers, that church breaks out when you're together. And I'm not saying we get rid of the church, this is the place where we're to come and worship God absolutely. But I'm saying, Matthew Henry said on Romans chapter 16 and five, it seems then a church and a house is no such absurd thing as some make it to be. Perhaps there was a congregation of Christians that used to meet in their house at stated times, and then no doubt it was like the house of Obed-Edom, blessed for the ark's sake. You know, you want your house blessed, then I'm not saying that we should not meet here. Again, I don't want you to misunderstand that, but what I am saying is that we can take what we have here and we can do that in our houses too. We don't just have to have church here at 9.30 and 10.30. and six o'clock and seven o'clock. We don't have to just do it then. It could happen. We could sing praises and talk about God's fellowship and edify one another at my house or at your house. Yeah, that's exactly right. and you know we can gather together here and we do that a lot. I think we should just gather together in our houses too. Because a lot of times when we gather together here, our kids don't see some of that. Other people get, you know. But being deliberate about it, plus our neighbors would see it. That may be a good testimony for them too. I am reminded of the passage about Zacchaeus whenever, in Luke chapter 19, and whenever our Lord said, I must abide, where? At thy house. He didn't say let's go you know, wherever, to the synagogue or unnecessarily, and I know a different environment, but he said, I must abide at thy house. Guess what? He must abide at our house too. This house and our houses individually. Now verse 3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now grace to you, Paul addressed grace to you in Romans and in Galatians and in Ephesians and Colossians. He begins that passage in Romans chapter 1 and verse 7 and verse 3 in Galatians chapter 1 and 2 in Ephesians and Colossians chapter 2 and he initializes that. Grace outlined by biblical usage here is that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness, grace of speech, goodwill, loving kindness, favor, of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, acknowledges affection, and kindles them to exercise of the Christian virtues. what is due to grace, the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace, the token of proof of grace, benefit, the gift of grace, the benefit or bounty. Thanks for benefits, services, favors, recompense, reward. And so he announces here grace to you and he puts with it peace. And so, this joy that comes as a result of serving the Lord and the grace that is bestowed, what we don't deserve, Christ has given us, how we can have this peace, because it is because of Christ that we can have peace or anything, right? Our salvation is all because of Jesus Christ. In Philippians chapter 4 verse 7 we know that, "...and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds to Jesus Christ." So he addresses this here to Philemon and the others, "...grace to you and peace from our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Some don't know peace. but he is addressing this peace that passeth all understanding and the grace that has come to us as not a result of anything that we've done but everything that Christ has done and so he's really reiterating all that Jesus Christ is and what he's done for them in the gospel. Some don't know peace. In Romans chapter 3 and verse 17, and the way of peace have they not known. So we know that people around us don't know peace. Do you know peace? And what is your peace based upon? Is it from God? Well, here, he clearly believes that these people know what grace and peace are, as he's addressing them. And it is from God. It's not from Paul. He doesn't say grace and peace from Paul. It is not from grace and peace from the circumstances by which Paul finds himself in. No. It's not by that, but it is from God. And really quickly here, the next sentence in this book here, I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. He says, in my prayers. And Paul mentions all the time about the things that are in his prayers. In Romans chapter 1 and verse 9, God is my witness. I make mention of you always in my prayers. And in Ephesians, he says, I cease not to give thee thanks, making mention of you in my prayers. In Titus, without ceasing, I have remembrance in my prayers, day and night. Philemon here, making mention of you always, he says, in my prayers. So, do you make mention always in your prayers? of all of these people? Do you have people that you always make mention of in your prayers? Like to the effect that you would write them and tell them about it because you always do it. And who are those people? Are those the fellow laborers and fellow servants? Fellow soldiers? The people that you're having church with? Are those those people that we make mention always in our prayers because we should? were always on Paul's mind. Always. He was very conscientious, Paul was, of the people in his life for the work of Christ. Were they perfect? I doubt it. And we can see some examples of imperfect people that were around Paul. Did they always get along? Probably not. I don't know. I doubt it. because they are still human beings. Nonetheless, Paul makes mention all the time that they are in their prayers. The overall image here is that they were united in the bonds of the gospel and in the service of Jesus Christ. What this tells me is that Paul didn't let any of that other stuff, the circumstances, or the perfect, or his perception of how they should be get in the way of praying for them, because you can't read the scripture and see that Paul was in the, he said, I'm in the bonds of the gospel and the service of Jesus, and these people here, well, I mean, they were always on his mind as a result of that. He didn't let the silly little things that we can let people annoy us by get in the way of praying for them, caring for them. I don't believe He did that at all. Hearing of thy love and faith, it says. We don't have time to get into any of the rest of that. You know, there is just so much in the initial stages of this book, and in all of the books, really, that Paul wrote. But this is such a unique book, I think, that has such great value to really think about in a different kind of way, other than the way that the other books are kind of addressed, where we tend to go to. And so, any questions or thoughts or comments before we dismiss? Probably not, since we're pretty much at time. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this hour, and Lord, thank you for your word, and thank you for speaking to me. And Lord, I know that you spoke here today to others, and I pray, Lord, that you would not let us forget these truths out of your word, that we would be fellow laborers, fellow servants, fellow soldiers of one another. and that we would really commit our lives, Lord, the whole part of it, no matter what we're doing, whether we're called to be an evangelist or whether we're called to go to work and provide for our family and serve you here and provide for those others in the work and doing it ourselves, Lord, I pray that you would help us all come together, together, that we are working together for getting the gospel out, Lord. and that we're all laboring in that endeavor. And I pray, Lord, that you'd bring us closer together as a result of that because we are working to get the gospel out and to spread it as you've called us to throughout everywhere. And I pray for our missionaries and our evangelists that we support. I pray for all of those Christians in the world today that are going through challenges or tough times and all the people, Lord, you're being spoken to today. your day, the Lord's day here, that are in churches everywhere, Father, real churches. And I pray, Lord, that you would bless this time, bless our service to come, the music, Brother Jed, our pastor, and we're just thankful, Lord, for what you'll do for us and in us and through us, in Jesus' name, amen.