chapter 4 verse number 32 and read for you through Acts chapter 5 verse number 11. So first of all let's find the book of Acts, find chapter 4 and get down to verse 32 and you can follow along with me as we read from 432 through 511. starting here in Acts 4, verse 32. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul. And not one of them claimed anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of the land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. Now Joseph, a Levite by Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, which translated means sons of encouragement, and who owned a track of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property and kept back some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge. And bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said to Ananias, Why has Satan filled your heart to lie? to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land. While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.' And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came over all who heard of it. The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now there elapsed an interval of about three hours, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price? And she said, Yes, that was the price. Then Peter said to her, Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door. They will carry you out as well.' And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead. and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came over all the whole church, over all who heard of these things." The title of the message tonight is going to be, The Persistence of Sin, The Persistence of Sin. Let's pray. Our dear, great God, we just thank you for your mercy and your grace in our lives. We thank you, Lord, that as Mike has already spoken with you, that you are the great, almighty God, that you are worthy of all of our praise and all of our honor. Lord, we recognize that you are doing a mighty, mighty thing. and furthering your kingdom through the building of your church. And yet, Lord, we also recognize that Satan is always out there attacking your work. We know that he will never prevail, but yet we know he is always viciously, persistently attacking your church. doing everything that He can to lead your church away from righteousness and into sin. Father, as we begin to study this account from Your Word tonight, which is the first account of sin within Your Church, I pray, Lord, that it would cause us to be vigilant and not only watching over our own hearts, but even as leaders, watching over the spirituality of this church. Help us, Lord, to never forget that sin is very persistent, and we must never relax in our endeavor to fight against it. Sin is always out there doing everything it can to destroy your church. We know it will never do that, Father, but we want to be used by you to help ensure that your church does prevail against the gates of Hades. We pray these things in your son's name. He is our Lord. He is our Savior Christ Jesus. Amen. Two weeks ago we looked at the first biblical recording of persecution of Christians. Tonight we are going to begin to look at a portion of the book of Acts that will give us our first biblical recording of sin within the church. Let me just review for you a little bit of what we looked at two weeks ago. We saw the persecution of the church in Acts 4, verse 1-7. We saw those who were involved. The apostles, basically Peter and John, were being persecuted by the Jewish religious leadership. The main point of contention was that they were teaching and preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we recognize also that 5,000 men had been added to the church because of their preaching. God honored their preaching, used their preaching to add 5,000 men. That does not take into consideration the women and the children. that would have been added. 5,000 men were added to the church. And yet the persecutors, the spiritual religious leaders of Israel, the Jewish spiritual religious leaders were using the ruse of spiritual legality. They were taking the spiritual high ground to bring an attack against Peter and John for the preaching of the resurrection. And what we gain most of all from that study is how to respond to persecution. And so I just want to go over that list of ways that Peter and John responded to persecution, how the church responded to that persecution. I want to go through that again just for our own edification tonight. First of all, they did not retaliate. They did not retaliate against the persecution. They were spirit controlled. They were filled with the spirit. They remained dominated. permeated and controlled by the Spirit of God. They trusted the power of God to speak for itself. They just kept on preaching the Word of God. They trusted the power of the Word of God to speak for itself. They were not intimidated by their persecutors. In fact, they charged their persecutors were being the ones whom had crucified Jesus Christ. They understood that the truth would confound their persecutors. As these persecutors looked at John and Peter, they recognized that they were untrained, uneducated men, and that confused them. But they also recognized that they had been with Jesus. They trusted God to use them at His own discretion. They had no absolute assurance that as they preached the Word of God, that God would use it to honor Himself and to grow the church. They trusted God to use their obedience, to use their humble obedience to God in any way that He would choose to do. They seized the persecution as an opportunity to proclaim Christ. Even as they were being persecuted, they continued to proclaim Christ. They made known the exclusivity of Christ. They said, there's no other name given among men under heaven by which men must be saved. They preached the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. They made sure that their voice was a problem and not their silence. They could have been silent. They could have said nothing. Would not have been a problem with their persecutors, but that would have been a problem with God They made sure that their voice was the problem. That was the problem that the persecutors had with them They spoke up and they spoke the truth and these persecutors didn't like it They lived so as to please God and not man as long as we continue To live as to please God and not man. We know we will glorify and honor God They were not flash-in-the-pan followers of Christ. Even after they were released after this persecution, they continued to be persistent in proclaiming Christ. They weren't flash-in-the-pan followers of Jesus Christ. Persistency in the ministry is tough. If we're going to endure persecution, we have to be persistent in the ministry. And that's hard. It's hard to remain persistent, especially in the face of persecution. And finally, they gave glory to God. And then we saw how God responded there in chapter four, verse 31. And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. God responded to the way they responded to persecution by just continuing to give them more of His power, to continue to empower them, to continue to preach the Word. But with all great success in ministry comes a great opportunity for Satan's attacks on God's people. And the Bible has always been honest about the failures of God's people. Tonight we're going to begin to look at one of those failures of God's people, failure in the church. But the Bible's not shy about sharing with us the failures of God's people. Moses, striking the rock when he was commanded not to. The sins of the nation of Israel. David's sin with Bathsheba and his failure to trust God when he counted his soldiers. The Bible makes it clear that Satan does not only attack the church from without, but he also attacks the church from within. We need to understand that Satan is always attacking the church. Sometimes it's from those outside, sometimes it's even from those within the church. Paul is recorded as saying in Acts 20, verse 28, as he talks to the elders at Ephesus, he tells them, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know, listen to this, Paul says, I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock. And from among your own self men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. We know that Satan will always be out to attack the church. He will always be out to bring in some kind of teaching, to bring in some kind of leadership that will lead the church either in a false understanding of the truth, following false teaching, or even sin itself. Sometimes it comes from without, sometimes it comes from within. Paul writes in Romans 16, verse 17, For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites. And by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unexpecting. When he tells the church to keep an eye out for those who cause dissensions and hindrances, he's talking about those in the church that cause dissensions and hindrances. So we know that Satan is always out to attack the church. Two weeks ago, We were able to take a look at the glorious nature of the church and her handling of persecution. But now we must begin to take a much more disturbing look at the early church, the infiltration of sin within the church. What really makes this account disturbing and depressing is the backdrop of great spiritual success and kingdom advancement in which the sin takes place. We're going to look at that backdrop tonight, and that backdrop is what we see in Acts 4, verse 32 to the end of the chapter. It is a backdrop of great spiritual success. It is a backdrop of great advancement of the kingdom of God. This historical narrative of the church should be loud, should be a loud reminder to the church and the leaders of the church to never take spiritual success for granted and never underestimate the power and the persistent of the evil one. Just when you think you have it all together and you begin to relax your spiritual vigilance, Satan will attack. His attack will come in an area where you thought you were well shored up and showed no signs of weakness. That's what we will see tonight. We will see that this attack that we will look at next week came in an area where the church seemed to be shining the best, where they seem to really be demonstrating a Christlike attitude. It was in that area that Satan was able to bring sin into the church. So the first thing we want to look at tonight is the righteous backdrop in which this spiritual sin takes place. And one of the first things we see is the spiritual unity, the spiritual unity among the believers. Look here again with me in Acts 4, verse 32. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul. They were unified. They were unified in heart and soul. And that unity is so essential to the church being able to accomplish what God has determined the church to accomplish. We cannot be those that proclaim the excellencies of God to this lost world if we are in disunity. The more we are unified, the more that we demonstrate our love for one another, the more we demonstrate to the world that we are disciples of Jesus Christ. This was heavily on Jesus's mind as he's getting ready to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he knows he's gonna be betrayed, he knows he's gonna be arrested, he knows he's gonna be charged, he knows he's gonna be convicted, and he knows he's going to be sentenced and eventually crucified. Just hours before, he's talking to his Heavenly Father, in that part in John 17 that we refer to as the high priestly prayer. Listen to this portion of that prayer. I want to begin, first of all, in John 17, verse 11. He says to his father, again, this is Jesus talking to his father. He says to his father, I am no longer in the world, yet they themselves are in the world. and I come to you, Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which you gave me, that they may be one, even as we are." He wants his followers to be one, even as he is one with his Father. He goes on about 10 verses later, and he says, that they may be one, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you. that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one. I am them and you and me, that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me. Jesus wants his followers to have a unity amongst them that rivals the unity between him and his father He wants us to have a unity that rivals the unity that He has with His Father. Such unity is possible only when each and every single follower of Christ is at one with Christ. As we are at one with Christ, the more we are at one with Christ, the more we will be at one with one another, and the more we will emulate a unity that exists between God the Father and God the Son. Obviously, if we can demonstrate that unity, we're demonstrating to the world something that it knows nothing of. It will be a clear demonstration that something has happened in our life and that something is Jesus Christ. It is very important that we as a church be unified. Paul understood this importance. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10, he writes, Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment." 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12, for even as the body is one and yet has many members, all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free. And we are all made to drink of one Spirit, for the body is not one member, but many." As we are all baptized into Christ, we become unified. We are a unified body. He goes on in 2 Corinthians 3, 13, 11 and says, Rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace, and the God of love and peace be with you all. He writes in Romans 15, verse 5, Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Jesus Christ, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4, verse 1, therefore I, a prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility, with gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love. Philippians 1, verse 27, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel Philippians chapter 2 verse number 1 therefore if there's any encouragement in Christ if there's any consolation of love if there's any fellowship of the spirit if any affection and compassion make my joy complete by being of the same mind maintaining the same love united in spirit intent on one purpose and finally Peter in first Peter chapter 3 verse 8 to sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, humble in spirit. What we see in the early church is this unity, a unity of mind, a unity of soul, that which is very essential to the church being the church of Jesus Christ, that unity. And the next mark of the spiritual progress of this church which is the preaching of the Word of God, the standard of preaching, helps us to understand where that unity comes from. The reason that this church had such unity is because of the standard of preaching. And that's the second mark that I want to look at this church. Not only was this church greatly unified, this church was greatly unified around the preaching of the Word of God. The preaching of the Word of God was the glue that held this church together. So let's look at the standard of preaching that we see here in the early church in Acts 4.33. And with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and abundant grace was upon them all. The first thing that we see about the standard of preaching, it's a reliance upon a power outside of oneself. With great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not their own power. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. Preaching will never honor God it will never glorify his word unless it is done in the power of the Holy Spirit There are many gifted orators many gifted speakers that can preach in their own power And they may seem to be great preachers, but if they're preaching in their own power there is no glorifying of God There is no honoring of the Word of God When I went through the doctor program at the Master's Seminary, we had a project. It's kind of like the thesis that you have in other doctor programs. In my project, I chose to do on preaching. It was the Word of God preached, a historical account of the preaching imperative. And as I followed preaching, even from the time of Genesis 1-1, God commanding creation into being, God preached to Abraham, that Abrahamic covenant we've been talking about. The word there god spoke to abram. It's the word defar in the pl form Which is an intensive form god preached to abraham all throughout the old testament God is preaching the prophets are proclaiming the prophets are declaring jesus christ comes on the scene preaching john The baptist comes on the scene preaching jesus christ is training his apostles to preach jesus christ when there's all kinds of healings going on He needs to move on because he came to preach preaching has always been the means by which God speaks, the means by which He furthers His kingdom. And as you study the history of preaching, you go through an era or you go through a period where the apostles were preaching the Word of God under the power of God. They were dependent upon God and they preached truth under the power of the Word of God. And then you get to an era where there are these gifted orators that are trained in oratory. And they would take the messages that other people under the power of God would preach, and they would preach the same messages. And it would seem that they would have the same effect, but they're preaching it in their own power. It was that type of preaching that led into the Dark Ages. It was a lack of preaching that was under the power of God. And then you see what brings the world out of the Dark Ages, brings the church out of the Dark Ages, was a returning back to the preaching of the word of God under the power of God. You must preach the word of God under the power of God, dependent, relying on God's power. So that's the first standard of the preaching that we see that was taking place during the time of the early church. As God was giving birth to his church, as he was growing his church, preaching was done under the power of God. There was a reliance upon a message outside oneself. They were not preaching themselves. They were preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And specifically in this situation, they're preaching the resurrection. They're preaching the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ amongst people who crucified Jesus Christ. The last thing these spiritual leaders, the last thing that the people of Israel want to hear is that the man that they had crucified has resurrected. They did everything they could to hide the resurrection. They did everything they could to make sure that nobody believed in the resurrection. But that didn't stop Peter and John. They preached a message that they knew the people did not want to hear. They didn't preach themselves. They preached what they knew the people needed to hear and they needed to hear about the resurrection. Acts chapter 2 verse 24. I want to just read several passages here from Acts where we see Luke recording the preaching of the resurrection. Acts chapter 2 verse 24, but God raised him up again putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in his power. Acts chapter 2 verse 32, this Jesus God raised up again to which we are all witnesses. Chapter 3 verse 15, but put to death the prince of life, the one whom God raised up from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. Chapter five, verse 30, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross. Chapter 10, verse 40, God raised him up on the third day and granted that he become visible. Chapter 13, verse 30, God raised him up from the dead chapter 13 verse 33 that God has fulfilled his promise to our children That he raised up jesus as it is also written in the second psalm. You are my son today I have forgotten chapter 13 verse 34 as for a fact that he raised him up from the dead No longer to return to decay. He has spoken in this way I will give you the holy and sure blessings of david and then chapter 13 verse 37 but whom he raised, but he whom God raised up did not undergo decay. Throughout the early church, they preached the resurrection. When Paul is getting near to the end of his life, he's still focusing on the resurrection. The last letter that he wrote, 2 Timothy 2, verse 8, he writes, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel. His gospel included the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He says, speaking of that gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal, but the word of God is not in prison. The word of God is not in prison. The gospel is not in prison. The preaching of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not in prison. You cannot imprison the truth. You can imprison the messengers of the truth, but you cannot imprison the truth. That's why the standard of preaching is always to preach a message that's outside of ourselves Always to preach a message that comes to us from God to never preach ourselves To never preach our own personality to never preach what we want to preach the Word of God That's exactly what these men were doing And then finally I want us to recognize that the standard of preaching will always experience great blessing look there at the end of verse 33 33 Abundant grace was upon them all Is there anything better than knowing that the ministry of church is pleasing to god? When god blesses your church when God pours out His grace upon your church because you're doing things just the way He wants you to do them. Is there any greater blessing than that? We talked this evening before we began our service about new people that are coming to church. Michelle, you shared about your parents coming. There are new people coming to church. Sure, we don't have full seats, but there's no greater blessing than to see God bless our church by bringing new people to this church. There's no greater blessing than seeing people grow in the grace and the knowledge of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There's no greater blessing than knowing that shepherd groups are teaching the deep things of God. That is the greatest blessing that a church can have. That is a sign of the grace of God on a church. And that is the standard of preaching. If we are preaching the truth, there will be blessings. Maybe sometimes we have to look more closely to see where the blessings are, but there will be blessings. And we as a church have been richly, richly blessed since the day that God enabled this church to be established. This church was established on the preaching of the word of God, and God has blessed this church. That is a standard of solid teaching in the church. That is why these early Christians were so unified. They were unified around the truth. I'm reminded of twice when I was candidating. Once when I came out of seminary, when I was trying to find the first church that God would allow me to pastor, and once between this church and the last church that I pastored. I went to candidate, and as those that I'm talking to are asking me questions, I know what I believe. I have convictions about what I believe. I have a very detailed doctoral statement about what I believe. And as I would share those convictions, and as I would talk about what I really believe is truth, those listening would say, well, I don't believe that. Well, I do believe that. Well, I don't know about that point. Well, I like that point. You could see division starting in the group because truth was brought in for the first time, and truth caused division. It is true. Truth will cause division. But after that division, what you have left is true unity. They thought they had unity, but they didn't really have unity because they weren't unified around the truth. Truth had not even been presented to them in order for them to determine whether they're unified around the truth. So we preach the truth knowing that it will divide, but it will also unify in a way that nothing else can unify. When a church is unified around the truth, that is a unity that will begin to emulate the unity that the Son had with the Father. It was the truth. It was the truth that held the father. They were unified around the truth. They are God, the father, God, the son, God, the spirit, all having the same thoughts and ideas, all knowing truth perfectly well. Each and every individual of the Trinity. That's what makes them so unified. And the more we can be unified around the church, the more we'll emulate that type of unity. A third characteristic of God really working in this church was the practical expression of mutual concern. Not only was this church unified in mind and soul, they were unified in the ministry. And they were unified in their practical, mutual concern for one another. Look with me here at the end of verse 32 and then verse 34 and verse 35. And not one of them claimed anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were commonly property to them. Verse 34, for there was not a needy person among them for all who were owners of the land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need." They were so unified. They were so unified around the church that if they had excess value, if they had excess things they didn't need, they would sell it and bring it together so that everybody's needs could be taken care of. This was a ministry that went on in this church at this time and the point is the whole church was unified around the ministry You know, you have a church that is united in one heart and one soul when they're united around the ministry when they see the ministry that the church is trying to accomplish and everybody's on board with it and Everybody wants to do whatever they can to help support and further that ministry. That is a church that is going to have a massive effect The culture that is a church that God is working That is a church that God is actually using to further his kingdom What a marvelous work The Holy Spirit is doing in this church as we look at the end of chapter 4 and then there's one other point that I want to point out individuals rising to exemplary standards In a church that is really being used by God, in a church that God is really using to further his kingdom, in a church that is really becoming all that God wants him to be, there will always be individuals that rise to exemplary service. And we see that in Joseph, who is called Barnabas, verse 36 and verse 37. Now Joseph, a Levite, a Cyperian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, which translated means son of encouragement, and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. A strong, vital God-honoring ministry will draw out those whom God has greatly gifted. Not everybody in the church is going to be a Barnabas. Not everybody in the church is going to be a Peter or a Paul. But there are individuals in the church that God has gifted for extraordinary greatness. And when a church is really operating the way that God has designed that church, those people are going to rise to the top. God is going to cause it to be made known who it is that he is gifted for extraordinary work in the ministry Barnabas a man of encouragement at this point sells what he has and lays it at the apostles feet He's all into the ministry. The ministry at this point is take care of the needs in the church. He is sold on it He's all in 100% in the ministry. But throughout the rest of his life, if Paul continues to follow the life of Barnabas, he's always into the ministry. He is a man that God has greatly gifted to be used to further the kingdom of God, to further the gospel, to cause the growth of the church. And we know that he was the one that first worked with Paul. And when him and Paul had a disagreement, he continued to do what he was best at, being an encourager to Mark. In fact, I have to go back and look, but I wonder if he's not even the one that brought Paul to bring the gospel and preach it to the Gentiles. Can't remember for sure, but it just seems like Barnabas is the one that brought Paul with him to go preach the gospel to the Gentiles. But again, my point is, is that when a church is being used of God, there will be people that rise up that God has gifted for the ministry. There's nothing extraordinary special in those people. They are just people that God has given a certain giftedness to, and God is raising them up. We've seen that in our own church. We've seen men come out of this church to go to be trained for the ministry. and are now in the ministry. We saw last week, Darren stepping up to preach. God's working in his life. We see it in the deacons that we're gonna bring forward. I'm gonna mention their names next week. On Sunday morning, I'm gonna put something in the bulletin to let the church know that we finally are getting to the point where we bring these men's names before you. But two of them are sitting right here, Mike and Stevens. And then there's gonna be Brody and Dan Arzola. These are men that God is using in the church. This is an encouragement to us. And next week when we come together, we're gonna see in light of all this encouragement, all this greatness that's going on, the very next event is sin coming into the church. Sin coming into the church. We always need to be diligent. We always need to be on guard. It's just when things start to move and things seem like they're going their best that sin enters in. I remember very well at our first church in Quincy, things were going great. We were moving to really have a solid group of a plurality of elders. For the first time, the church is moving to elders. We had a retreat where we got all together and there was one man in particular who was a great leader. He said to me, I'm nervous. Things are going real strong. And within 24 hours, we found out that one of the other leaders in the church had been living in immorality. And that issue split that church. That very issue. We came that close to being what God wanted that church to be. And because we weren't diligent, and because this certain person was closer with some of the men that were in leadership and not others, it caused a division and the church ended up splitting. Satan came in and attacked that church. And so when we come back next week and we study this account of Anais and Sapphira, we want to be diligent. But we also want to recognize that God preserved this church. What did God do with that sin? He exposed it. Church discipline was practiced in a very dramatic way. And that sin was removed, and the church continued to grow. So I'm assured as we continue to trust the Lord, when sin comes in, we'll deal with it the way that God wants us to deal with it, and we'll continue to be all that God has called us to be. Let's pray. God, I am so grateful for Your Word, and I'm so grateful for the humility that You continue to allow us to have. Lord, help us never to become arrogant. Help us to never think it is because of our own wisdom, our own personalities, because of anything within us that anything great happens in this church. Keep giving us, Lord, humble leaders. We must be humble leaders that are completely dependent upon the Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you'll continue to show your grace upon this church. Thank you, Lord. Thank you that you are the one that is building your church. Thank you for purchasing the church with your own blood. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the immensity of your love for the church. Help us to continue to grow, to love the church like you love the church. We pray this in your Son's most holy and precious name. Amen. you.