We are jumping back into Acts after a couple of months off. And so we need to review where we have recently been here in chapter 18 before we dive into the passage that I want us to begin looking at this morning. We had noted earlier in the chapter that we find principles of ministry, biblical ministry, that we can pattern our own church after. We see an apostolic pattern. We see how God was using the Apostle Paul and his companions to minister the gospel to new regions, to faithfully preach the word of God, to not only bring people to faith in Christ through the preaching of the gospel, but then to invest themselves in their lives, to disciple them so that they would walk in the way of the Lord. And we noted in the first 17 verses of chapter 18, three ongoing disciplines of biblical ministry. And so by way of review, let me walk you through those first 17 verses, noting those three areas of discipline that are found in a ministry that can be rightly called biblical. And then we will explore the new passage together. First, we noted that Biblical ministry is characterized by the discipline of receiving hospitality from fellow believers. And what that teaches us is that there is a pattern of team ministry that we find in the book of Acts in the early church. Though Paul's name is prominent throughout the missionary journeys, Paul was not a lone ranger. He was the leader of a team, and God used him in mighty ways. And we see here in the first three verses of chapter 18, how Paul received hospitality from fellow believers. It says that after these things, he left Athens and went to Corinth. These things that Luke is referring to primarily is the sermon that Paul had just preached there in Athens, a totally God-centered message to the idolatrous people in the city of Athens. Paul then traveled west across a narrow strip of land bordered on both sides by water connecting two large parts of Greece in order to go to the city of Corinth. Corinth was a leading city in ancient Greece. It was extremely wealthy because of its ideal location. It was an entertainment center known for famous games, athletic games. It was the fourth largest city of the Roman Empire with a population of 600,000 people. But most noteworthy, Corinth was a thoroughly immoral city. contained the temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility, which housed one thousand temple prostitutes. So the city of Corinth was most famous for its immoral worship of false gods. But this is the city that God directed Paul to go to. This is the city that thoroughly needed the gospel. This is the city that needed to be transformed by the gospel, needed to hear the news that Christ Jesus did not come into the world to save righteous people, but to save sinners. And there were plenty in Corinth. And so Paul was directed there by God to preach the gospel and to plant a new church. And so this immoral trade center becomes a perfect place to establish a new church, a church that, because of its geographical location, could be strategically used by God to spread the gospel far and wide. Verse two tells us that when Paul arrived in Corinth, he found a couple by the name of Aquila and his wife Priscilla. These were fellow tradesmen. They were tent makers who were later to become ministry partners. Though Luke gives prominence to Paul, it is clear throughout the rest of this chapter and the chapters that follow that Aquila and Priscilla as well as other key people will join the ministry team and be used by the Lord so God is developing here a team of missionaries who will take the gospel throughout the city of Corinth and then be used by God to establish a church there in order for that to take place Paul had to have an open heart and Paul had to be open to team ministry. If he had been a lone ranger who was not open to receiving hospitality from others, then this church would have been hindered. But Paul recognized that God had sovereignly placed Aquila and Priscilla in his life, and it was not a coincidence that they were all three tent makers, leather makers. That was their trade as they traveled from city to city, setting up shop, So God bonded them together in Christ to form a team to minister to the city of Corinth. There was a second discipline that we noted last time, and that was biblical ministry persuades on believers with the word of God. We see this in verses four and five. Paul was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. This was Paul's pattern, as he declared in the other letters that he wrote, that he would persuade people with the gospel. That was his desire, to persuade men with the truth of the Word of God. He reasoned every Sabbath, verse 4 tells us. Verse 5, we see that God sends more helpers to shape this ministry that Paul is the leader of. And therefore, Paul is then able to devote himself more fully to the Word. It says Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word as God expanded the team of servants. God was able to then direct Paul and narrow his focus on the preaching and teaching of the Word and the spreading of the Gospel. And this is a mark of biblical ministry. Devotion to the word of God is a non-negotiable mark of biblical ministry. You cannot have a biblical ministry if you don't care about biblical truth. That seems pretty logical, doesn't it? You can't have a biblical ministry unless you are committed to pouring over the word of God to understand it and then to teach it and to spread it to others. And when a church grows to the point where there is an increasing number of servants in the church who are gifted in preaching and teaching that then the equipping of the believers expands and the church then can become a geographical training center, so to speak, as Corinth was going to become a center for the spreading of the gospel. So there was a persuasion that The Bible was the word of God and that it was to be taught. That was the second discipline that we noted. And there was a third, a third ongoing discipline of biblical ministry that we noted is found in verses six through seventeen. And that is that we must persevere through various forms of opposition. A biblical ministry must be deeply rooted in a belief in the sovereignty of God and in the perseverance of believers. It must be deeply rooted in confidence in God to strengthen it, to sustain it, that God will honor those who honor his word. That doesn't mean there will always be peace. That doesn't mean that everybody will be in favor with what is taught. In fact, it rarely ever means that. There is opposition. Jesus promised that there would be. So we find here in verses 6 through 17, Paul and his teaching are opposed by the enemies of the gospel. But we noted four commitments that really make up this perseverance. First, Paul was committed to preach to those who would listen and would obey. Verse 6, we see that Paul washes his hands of any further responsibility for the spiritual welfare of those whom he taught the Word of God to. When they resisted and blasphemed, it says, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads. I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. Not everyone is going to respond in a favorable way to the word of God as it is preached and as it is taught. The faithful servant of God needs to understand that and needs to be willing to shake the dust off his feet, so to speak, as Jesus said in Mark 6, 11, and know that he must continue to preach the word of God to those who are willing to listen. He must continue to disciple those who are willing to be discipled. And if others fall by the wayside, so be it. because there is only so much time in one's life. Even the pattern of Jesus' ministry is a picture of that, though He had thousands who were following Him at various times for the sake of receiving healing. In the end, there were only twelve, and then at the time of His ascension, only 120. So let's not get a false idea that If we do things God's way, it will always mean massive success and widespread approval. It will hardly ever mean that. There are many who gather to hear, but there are few who actually follow. And we see that here in Paul as well. And so he left there, it says in verse 7, and went to the house of a man named Titus Justice. And there God then used him to spread the gospel further. That was part of the perseverance that Paul models for us, is that he was committed to preach and teach those who were willing to hear and to obey. But we notice he also rested in the sovereign grace of God, verses 9 and 10. Paul understood that it was his responsibility to preach the gospel. It was God's responsibility to save some. It was not Paul's responsibility to save anybody. And Paul knew that not all would be saved. He was not a universalist. He understood that only those who heard the gospel and were regenerated by the work of the Holy Spirit would be the ones who would respond to the gospel and thereby be saved. But he had a passion for the lost. He preached the gospel everywhere that he went. But he also rested in the sovereign grace of God, who declared, I have many people in this city. In verse 10, where it's Paul persevere, be confident that I will save some. You just be faithful and I'll take care of the rest. And that's where we're at. That's where we have to be as witnesses of the gospel. We have to be faithful to witness Christ, to preach the gospel to others, and then have the confidence in the sovereignty of God to rest in God doing the work in people's hearts, because we can't do the work in people's hearts. I can't change anyone's heart. You can't change anyone's heart. Only God, by the Holy Spirit and the word of God, can change any sinner's heart. But the instrument that he chooses to use is the word. It is the gospel and the whole counsel of God, and so we must be faithful to preach it and then to rest in God to do his work. And then thirdly, there was another commitment that was at the heart of Paul's perseverance. And that is that he settled down to teach the Word. Whenever possible, he would settle down and teach the Word of God as much as he could for as long as he could. And verse 11 tells us that he was allowed to be there a year and six months at that point. He settled there and he taught the Word of God among the people. Paul was not content, as many are today, to simply get people to make a decision for Christ and then move on. Paul was passionate about making disciples, which is the heart of the Great Commission, to make disciples, followers of Christ. And so Paul was committed to disciple people in any one location for as long as he could. That was part of the commitment of his perseverance. And then finally, we see another commitment of his perseverance is that he trusted God. He trusted God for his defense. He trusted God as his defense. Verses 12 through 17 record this conflict that Paul has and how God uses this civil government leader to provide some wisdom, which then gives Paul a reprieve and allows him to continue there in Corinth to preach and to disciple the people. Which is interesting because God sometimes brings protection from unexpected sources. Here the case is he uses an unbelieving government leader to bring reprieve to Paul, safety to Paul. Paul's confidence is in God to take care of him, to protect him for as long as he needed to be protected there in Corinth and then to move him on whenever he needed to move on. God is the confidence of a truly biblical ministry. We are just servants. We are just seed planters. We are just waterers. And God, by his grace, then allows us to sometimes be harvesters as well. But in the end, it's all of God. It's God's work from beginning to end. It's just grace that allows us to be a part of any of it. So our confidence as we strive to maintain a biblical ministry here at Emmanuel and to branch forth in whatever other ministries the Lord enables us to be used in is that we would be truly biblical, that we would be dependent upon God, confident in God and trust him. So now picking up where we left off there in verse 17, we come to the next portion of the chapter which marks the end of the second missionary journey. of Paul and his companions and the beginning of the third missionary journey. And the section can be neatly broken into two. The first section describes Paul's return to the home base of Antioch, and that we find in verses 18 through 22. So the first division of the text is returning to the home base, returning to the home base, returning to the home church, the sending church. And that return trip to Antioch can be then broken into two parts. First from Corinth to Ephesus and then from Ephesus to Antioch. So let's begin in verse 18 by looking at the first phase of the journey, which is from Corinth to Ephesus. It says in verse 18, Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria. So he remained many days longer, Luke says. In other words, he remained in the city of Corinth, now protected by Roman law, now able to serve as long as God would sovereignly allow him to serve there. But then the time came for him to leave, and so he took leave of the brethren, which is a way of saying he said goodbye to the believers there in Corinth. And if it was like some of his other goodbyes, it was probably tearful. It was probably heart wrenching. It was probably not something that he was thoroughly excited about, though he was excited about what God had in store for him. So it was a bittersweet kind of goodbye, undoubtedly. Luke provides an afterthought here in verse 18 about their little eastward jaunt to the harbor town of Sancreia where it says he had his hair cut. Sancreia was a thriving little church. Romans 16 verse 1 refers to one of the servants there, Phoebe, a servant who was used of the Lord in the church at Sancreia. And he then put out to sea for Syria. Syria is the province of this region of which Antioch is the capital city. So that's where he's headed. He's headed home. He's headed back to the home church. This phase of the missionary life is coming to a close and he's going back to the church to give a report. This is his intention. He always intended to return to the home base, which was the local church that had affirmed and commissioned and sent him into the gospel ministry. Notice with me, go back to chapter 12. Let me remind you of how God called Paul and Barnabas to the work of the gospel ministry. It was the combination of what we might call an internal call and an external call. Paul and Silas, Felt we can use that subjective word here, felt an internal call of God upon their lives to serve him as missionaries. But that was not enough. Which is very crucial for us to remember is not enough that they simply felt that they should become missionaries and therefore they should announce to the church that God has called them to be missionaries. And here's where they're going. And by the way, it'd be nice if you would write a check and send it to us every month. much of how some modern day missions takes place. It says in Acts 12, verse 24, But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark. So Paul and Barnabas, or Barnabas and Saul as they are referred to here in verse 25, they had already been on an assignment sent out by the local church to deliver famine relief to other churches, other regions, and they had been faithful. They had fulfilled their mission. Verse 25. They had proven themselves as faithful servants of God. They didn't just have a dream they wanted to fulfill and they wanted the church to foot the bill for it. They had already demonstrated their faithfulness within the context of local church ministry. So crucial. so critical to a biblical understanding of how missions should be carried out by us as a local church. And as they were at Antioch, 13, one says, in the church that was there, there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas and Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaan, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, key phrase, while they were ministering to the Lord, while they were serving the Lord faithfully in the church, while they were fasting, and we can presume, I think, that while the whole church was also fasting with them about their future, The Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. What's that? And that's the external call. The internal call was the desire in the hearts of Paul and Barnabas to be missionaries. The external call was the church saying, yes, we see the hand of God upon your life. Yes, we see the call of God upon your life. Yes, you have demonstrated a certain degree of faithfulness here in the local church. We recognize godly character. We recognize spiritual qualifications in you. And therefore, we recognize that the Holy Spirit has set you apart for this work and we are ready now to send you." And that's what it says that they did. They fasted and prayed, sent them away onto what is called the first missionary journey. This is really, really an important model for us to consider. I was so encouraged a couple weeks ago to read A new book by Brian Croft entitled Test, Train, Affirm, and Send into Ministry. The whole point of the book is to reestablish biblical foundations of what it means to be a local church that is a sending agency for missionaries. But before it can be a sending agency for missionaries, it has to be a church that's committed to testing people before they are sent. A church that is committed to affirming them in their call and a church that is committed to training them so that they can be sent having been equipped for the work that God has called them to. And I read just a couple comments from that book to encourage you as it encouraged me. Question, who should receive the external call? In other words, assuming that someone has an internal call, that is, a heart's desire to be a missionary, to be a pastor, to be a church planter, so on. Who should receive the external call? Who should receive the affirmation from the local church that yes, that internal call is indeed valid? It is essential that a church think through this question biblically before it acts to confer its blessing on any man pursuing ministry. Sadly, Croft says, many churches today base their external call on nothing more than a man's sense of internal calling, his own subjective perception of his desire to do the work of the ministry and of his giftedness for that work. In other words, too many local churches are simply content to say, oh, will you feel a call? And you feel you are gifted, you feel you're qualified, fine, we'll send you. But what if the church does not see what that man sees? Should the church send him out to the mission field? Not according to the pattern that we find in the book of Acts. Croft goes on to say, to be sure, a man's own assessment of his desire and giftedness for the work of the ministry does play a key role in determining whether a church should grant that man the external call. Nonetheless, churches have a responsibility to base their external call not primarily on a mystical, subjective, and unfalsifiable feeling in the man himself. but rather on a tangible process that tests a man's qualifications for ministry against those laid out in Scripture." I think those are great comments, great reminders of how we are to follow this pattern of how Barnabas and Saul were recognized by the church as being gifted, called, qualified, and therefore the church was willing to send them. So that was the first missionary journey and away they went and accomplished many things for the glory of God. But then they returned from that journey at the end of chapter 14. So turn there and notice as well the emphasis on returning to home base, returning to the home church that had equipped and trained and affirmed them in the work of the ministry. Chapter four, verse 14. They passed through Pisidia and came into Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Atalia. From there, they sailed to Antioch, from which notice from which they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had accomplished. So they went back to the church that had commended them to the grace of God that had sent them, that had affirmed them, that had said, we are confident God's hand is upon you. God's call is upon your life. And we trust the grace of God to accomplish great things through you. And that's exactly what happened. Verse 27, when they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they spent a long time with the disciples. So it was the desire of the missionaries to return to home base. Why? Because that's the place where they first experienced the blessing of God upon their ministry, where they first experienced not only the internal call of God upon their lives, but the external call or affirmation of the church upon their lives and their calling to the work of the ministry. And they could not wait to get back to Antioch to tell all that God had accomplished through them. So this is a very, very important element of biblical ministry that we need to think through. That God desires the local church. That's not strong enough. Sorry, that's not strong enough. God has Ordained that's better. God has ordained the local church to be the primary training center for ministry That does not mean there is no place for Bible colleges and seminaries. There is a place For them, but they have to find their proper place and their proper places under the authority and direction of the local church to come alongside the local church to help equip people and for the ministry to which God calls them. But it really comes down to local families of God, local communities of the faith called churches, where a man's faithfulness is first and foremost proven, demonstrated, before he should be sent to the mission field. And so we as a church are committed to that practice, committed to returning to that practice as demonstrated by the book of Acts. So let's go back to chapter 18. Here we see Paul and his companions who are aware of where their affirmation and accountability lay and therefore They are missionaries who are on the road again, traveling back to the home church, going back to Antioch. And with them, according to verse 18, are Priscilla and Aquila. Actually, at this point, it seems that it's just the three of them, Paul, Priscilla and Aquila. We don't really know what has happened to Silas and Timothy at this point. It faded from the scene. But there, Luke says, in Sancria, Paul had his hair cut. That's an interesting comment. You kind of fly right by and you think, well, why did we have to know that Paul went to the barbershop before he left? Well, that's not what it was about. He had his hair cut for, here's the reason, he was keeping a vow. So Paul was keeping a vow. Well, what vow would involve hair cutting? It was a Nazirite vow. The vow of the Nazarites was established in Numbers chapter 6, and this was one of the ways that some of the people of God set themselves apart to God, usually in response to some great deliverance from God, and out of thankfulness and gratitude to God, they wanted to make a vow to Him, and part of the vow was that they would abstain from certain things. The Nazarite always abstained from grape products, products from the vine, refrained from cutting their hair and from contact with corpses. Numbers chapter 6 lays it all out, describes the vows that the Nazarite would take, and then the latter part of the chapter describes in detail the ceremonial sacrifice that took place after the vow had been fulfilled. And then that hair was cut and burned as a sacrifice to God. There are some examples in the scripture of lifelong Nazarites. Paul was not one of them, but there are examples. Samson was a lifelong Nazarite. Samuel, as well as John the Baptist. Some mistakenly say Jesus was a Nazarite. He was not. He was a Nazarene. Simply grew up in Nazareth. According to the church historian Josephus, the vow that Paul made would have been for a specified period of time and would have included a pledge to make a sacrifice of his locks of hair in Jerusalem within 30 days. So when Paul made this vow, he knew he couldn't get another haircut for 30 days. He had to be in Jerusalem where he could then get the haircut and offer it as a burnt offering to God as a sacrifice to say, thank you, God. for what you have done for me." It was at the conclusion of the vow that Homer Kent says one's hair was cut or shaved and burned with a sacrifice at Jerusalem. So this was the vow that Paul took that is referred to here in verse 18. And having taken that vow, now he was obligated to make a trip to Jerusalem to make a sacrifice which is recorded then in chapter 21 when he gets to Jerusalem and he does make that sacrifice. So this was not only a way for Paul to express gratitude to God, but it was also a way for Paul to become a Jew to the Jews in order that he might win the Jews to Christ. There were Jews who still cared about Nazarite vows, still were concerned about keeping certain parts of Old Testament law, and this was a way in which Paul could expand his influence, so to speak, without compromising the truth. The principle that really caused him to function The way that he did in this case is explained in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 19, where Paul writes, for though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all so that I may win more. What does that mean? It means that he's free in Christ. Totally free in Christ. And yet, because of his love for lost souls, he's willing to become a slave to those people in the sense of becoming like them in some ways in order to win them to Christ. Not talking about compromising holiness. He's not talking about becoming worldly in order to win the worldly. That's how this principle is often interpreted and applied in evangelicalism today. But this was just a little thing that Paul could do to relate to some of the Jews. So it goes on in First Corinthians to say to the Jews that became as a Jew so that I might win the Jews to those who are under the law is under the law, though not being on myself under the law so that I might win those who are under the law. So he was willing to act in certain ways. participate in certain Jewish ceremonial activities so that he could then announce to them that Christ has fulfilled the law. So that's what's going on here in verse 18. That's the first part of the journey from Corinth to Ephesus. Let's look at the second part of the journey from Ephesus to Antioch, verses 19 through 22. They came to Ephesus and he left them there. So the three of them arrived in Ephesus, and it's clear then Paul left Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus, apparently to begin a new gospel work in this idolatrous city. This tent making couple was able then to furnish or supply their own needs. And so they were able to then to work for the gospel sake. They could establish their business in a new city. They apparently remained there for several years. 1 Corinthians 16.19 says that the new church that was in Ephesus met in their house. So that's why this, along with what we see earlier in the chapter, kind of elevate Aquila and Priscilla as being the model of hospitality in the New Testament. This was a husband and wife team who loved to open their home to strangers, loved to receive people and minister to them in marvelous ways. Don't underestimate that ministry, by the way. Some Christians say, well, if I can't teach a Sunday school class, if I can't preach, if I can't do this, if I can't do that, well, I'm just nothing. I can't make a difference. The ministry of hospitality, may I say, is a dying ministry. in the Church of Jesus Christ, because especially in America, we are so private, individualized. And our homes are not ministry centers, but they are museums whereby we display all the beautiful things that we have worked so hard to buy, that are just going to burn one day when God sets the world on fire. And we need we need an Aquila, Priscilla mindset. that the two by fours and drywall that we live in is supposed to be a ministry center. Let me ask you, when was the last time you had people you're not related to into your home for a meal? When was the last time you opened your home to a Bible study? When was the last time you had a college student stay overnight in your home? When was the last time that you dared to sign up to have a stranger in your house, someone you've never met. Hospitality is a very, very important part of the ministry of the body of Christ. And here's a couple that just modeled it beautifully. Well, here they are in Ephesus. Paul's going to leave them there because there's much work to be done. But he's going to come back to them later after he makes his trip that he is so intent on. He entered the synagogue, it says, verse 19, reasoned with the Jews. That's what he always does. Every time Paul goes to a new city, enters the synagogue, preaches the gospel to the Jews. That's the pattern to the Jew first and also to the Greek. That was the pattern of Jesus. When he sent out the 12, he said, do not go in the way of the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Go to the Jews first. Preach the gospel to them first. Why is that? Well, because Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Christ. He's the promised one to Israel, but also because the Jews have a theological foundation. The Old Testament. that predicted the Messiah. And so Paul could just open up the Old Testament scrolls and say and read an Old Testament passage, like, say, Isaiah 53, and then announced to them that Jesus Christ, who had been crucified in Jerusalem and risen from the dead, is that Christ. That's what he did is he went from city to city. When they asked him to stay longer, verse 20 says he did not consent. Why? Because his focus set is on a journey. He took leave of them, though, in verse 21, and he said, I will return if God wills. So he was open to God bringing him back to that city, which, of course, he did. And then when he landed at Caesarea, verse 22 says he went up and greeted the church. Went up is undoubtedly a reference to going up to Jerusalem. That phrase is used really quite consistently went up and went down, went up to Jerusalem because Jerusalem is at a higher elevation. You always go up to Jerusalem. You never go down to Jerusalem. So he went up to Jerusalem and then down from Jerusalem to Antioch. So he's he has sailed across the Mediterranean eastward. He has landed in Caesarea. He has gone up to Jerusalem. And now he goes down and probably travels by foot 300 miles to Antioch, where then he reports to his home sending church all that God had done through them. Verse 23 then indicates that he spent some time there before meeting up with Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus, which is where we're going to have to pick it up next time. So let's just wrap up what we've seen this morning and that is we've seen again here another biblical example of the priority of the local church and I'm not ashamed to stand before you and boldly declare that I believe that the local church is God's chosen instrument for the work of the gospel in this age. It is local communities of the faith that need to be committed to preaching the gospel to our city. It is local communities of the faith that must be committed to discipleship, discipling one another, and then training intently those who sense an internal call to a broader, more focused kind of gospel ministry so that the internal call can be affirmed by the external call of the church through that training process. And then when those are trained and affirmed by the local church, then we have the great privilege to send them wherever in the world God calls them to serve. And I look forward to the days ahead in which God refines that process, that ministry training strategy here at Emmanuel. And God is then, by His grace, pleased to send out from this place many who will go to foreign lands, perhaps, taking the gospel. Perhaps go to area cities here in Wisconsin to establish new churches that need a faithful gospel witness. Let's pray to that end. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for explaining it to us this morning by your Holy Spirit. Thank you for helping us to see a ministry model and ministry principles that we not only can apply, but must apply to our own local church here at Emmanuel. I thank you for the work you're doing among us. I thank you for those that you have called in our calling to faith in Christ. Thank you for those you have trained in our training to be involved in perhaps a more particular ministry in the future. And we just submit ourselves to you, Lord, and pray that your Holy Spirit will do a mighty work among us. Make us an Antioch, Lord. We have talked about this and prayed about this for eighteen years. And we are looking forward to the day when we see a more refined focused strategy of being that Antioch church that is used by you to test and train and affirm those who are called to the gospel ministry and then to have the great privilege to send them out. Do this mighty work, we pray, for your glory. In Christ's name, Amen.