If you would open your Bibles to first Corinthians, chapter 16, first Corinthians, chapter 16. We are at the very, very, very end of first Corinthians today. We'll be reading verses 12 through 24. This will this will end our time through this sermon series that we've been been through in the last year or so. We hear the word of the Lord. First Corinthians chapter 16, starting in verse 12. Now, concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all as well to come. Now he will come when he has an opportunity. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Now, I urge you, brothers, you know that the household of Stefanos were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the Saints. Be subject to such as these and to every fellow worker and labor. I rejoice at the coming to Stephanus and Fortunus and Achaia because they have made up for your absence, for they refresh my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people. The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. All of the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, wrap this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord come. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. Let us pray. Oh, Father, we We rejoice that you have given us the full counsel of your word. And if you have provided so much for us and instruction. An example by the apostles. And father, we ask that you would speak to us even through the closing of this letter. That we would not be just so much your closing of greetings and. and final instructions and exhortations, but it would it would be found by us to be your word alive and true. Oh, father, send the spirit to work among us to change our hearts and to mold us into the image of the Lord Jesus. We ask that you would teach us today that we would be changed in different people, that we would we would desire to be the new creation that we are. Oh, father, we ask that you would do this today and then you would allow my voice to hold up And that we we most of all would bring you honor and glory in what we do here this day. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. Maybe seated while you're sitting down, let me apologize for my my voice. I seem to have got some allergies and all this other stuff going on that so many people seem to have out and about this time of year. Well, we are at the end of first Corinthians. And for at least for me, it's been a helpful study as we've walked all the way through this letter together over the last year, a little more than a year. And today we we approached we come to the approach this text and we it's very similar to last week's text in that it doesn't have the heavy hitting corrections and exhortations and deep theological teaching that comes in the meat of Paul's letters to the churches. So we're going to handle this text in a similar way that we did last week. We're going to look at what he has to say, the principles that govern what he has to say, and we're going to apply those to ourselves as appropriate. Now, last week we saw Paul set forth an example of being generous and money, time and hospitality because of the changes that we have experienced because of the gospel, because of Christ's work in our own lives. And in the last few sentences of this letter, where we are today, Paul outlined some final instructions to the church at Corinth. So I want to look at those instructions today and I want to see those instructions as instructions for ourselves also, not just instructions to the church in Corinth. But to understand these last instructions, we have to understand all of Paul's previous teachings of the letter. I think for at least myself, sometimes I tend to forget. that this letter and the other epistles were written as one big unit and read together to the entire church. And after a year of looking at it, we probably have forgotten some of the things in the letter, but it would not have been forgotten by the Corinthian church. They would have just heard it. And so leading up to what he has to say is is the bulk of his teachings, specifically the gospel message. So what we're going to do today is first we're going to review the gospel message that we see in this letter as a reminder. And then we're going to see how Paul is calling for the Corinthian church and us to participate around the gospel and the work of ministry. Then we're going to look at his call to to be strong in the gospel. And lastly, his call to love and encourage the church. So let's begin today with a little review, a review of the gospel message throughout the letter to the Corinthians. Now, The gospel that we believe is sprinkled all throughout this letter to the Corinthian church. We see it very early on as the foundation of all that Paul does in his corrections and is his expectations and his encouragements in this letter. When we see the first chapter, Paul gets right into the gospel. He reviews all the parts of it, and we see that he reviews that God is holy and man is not. And we see this very clearly in verse 18, that there is a divide. There are two groups of people in this world. There are those that are perishing and there are those who are being saved. Those people are perishing because they're sinners. They stand before a holy God. And without any without any help, they will perish. Paul writes in verse 18, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. There are two groups of people. And as we look at those two groups of people, we see very clearly that God is holy and man is not. Those that are perishing are not holy. And in fact, we could also even look back and those of us that have trusted in Christ know that we once were also perishing outside of God's work in our lives. We saw the cross as folly and we were going to perish, but. Christ has come. And those who believe in him and trust in him as their savior, as Paul says, are being saved. So we see this divide. God is holy and man is not. And without God's work in a person's life, they are perishing. Secondly, we see that Christ came to save people and those who believe will be saved. And we see that in verse two of First Corinthians, chapter one. to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Do you see that those sanctified in Christ Jesus? He's pointing to the fact that Christ has, in fact, come and done his work. He's reminding the church of this gospel message that they should be clinging to and that those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. Paul is clearly reminding the church that that grace is granted to all those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, who place their trust in him. This is a clear reminder of the gospel to us also. Because you see, we, like the Corinthian church, we have a sin problem. We are born into sin and we stand before God with judgment looming over us. But there is good news. Christ came. Christ fulfilled the law. Christ lived a sinless life. Christ went to the cross, was executed, took our punishment. God's wrath that was poured was poured out upon him, this wrath that was stored up for us as sinners. And he died and then in the resurrection he defeated death. He ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of God and those who trust in him and have faith in him, his work is granted to them that they are saved. After this, this is a great reminder and a great encouragement, not only to the Corinthians, but to us also that are being saved. I've said this before and I'll say it again. I remember in college, I think my wife related this to me as she heard someone else said that you can never preach the gospel to yourself too often. And as Christians, we need to hear this message over and over and over again. This should be an encouragement not only to the Corinthian church, but to us, too. that Christ has come on our behalf. And with that set up, Paul gets to work in the rest of the letter to apply the effects of this gospel message of this work of Christ to the problems in the local church. Now, here's some of the things that he has addressed. He's addressed divisions of people following different leaders. He also addressed the ministry of the apostles. He applied The power of the gospel, the outworking of Christ's work in people's lives, he applied it to sexual immorality, to lawsuits, to marriage, to food offered to idols, to idol worship, to head coverings, to the Lord's Suffering, to spiritual gifts, to prophecy and tongues, to love each other, to worship. He explained the resurrection of Christ from the dead. As we look at all those applications, that he has done and how this how the gospel, how the changing work of Christ should work through the church and in the life of believers, we start to see this characteristic of a church being built. A church should have three characteristics, and I said this very early on when we first went through, we started first Corinthians in the very first three verses, I pointed out that we were going to see that through the gospel, a church should have the characteristics of being holy, Which means they are new creatures that are fighting against sin. They should be unified around the gospel message, the truth of Christ's work, and they should be loving. I think if churches can get those three things right, everything else starts to fall in place. And over and over, as we saw these characteristics of a church being built and we saw Paul Touch each of these things I just listed out, each of these topics. We saw this principle of loving and caring and having current concern for others is the way that we deal with these topics. You see. We, outside of Christ, we're sinners. And that makes us enemies of this holy God. But what he has done for us is very kind. and loving and caring that he sent Christ for us. So we deal with these situations, the proper application of the outwork of Christ's work in our lives is to have love and care, concern for others as we work through these situations. Last week, we saw at the start of the conclusion of this letter, Paul's talk of collection for the Saints and travel plans and this idea of generosity. And we see this same pattern of the application of Christ's work. And he he wants them to to pour out their love, even in the things that they have physically. Now, I hope that you've seen this pattern all the way throughout the letter. You see, the gospel of Christ has not only saved us. And that's it, it saved us, and it should also change us. Which means our actions should be changed, our interactions with each other should be changed because we are new creatures in every aspect of our lives, every one of them. We should be molded and conformed to the likeness of Jesus. It means I've said this before, we should look to Christ and see him as our salvation and then With that in mind, we should turn and make application of that into our lives, relying on the Holy Spirit to work with us and to help us to know how to do that. So I want to ask you today, we remember back and seeing the gospel message of first Corinthians and the way that Paul has applied it. Christian, do you see yourself as a new creation? Do you see yourself as a new creation, one that one that works and that tries to do the very thing that Paul is outlined for the church in Corinth to to apply cross work in all areas, in every aspect of not only church life, but your your normal life? Do you see yourself as a saved new creation that has the ability to do this with the power of the Holy Spirit? Because I think if we. See him for who he is. And we really focus on this salvation and we look to Christ in the scriptures and we really see him. We will throw off any doubts that we have about our salvation being true. We will want to fight against sin. We will want to work to live a life as a new creation that we actually are. Now, others hear that maybe you're not a Christian. Let me ask you, what keeps you from trusting in Christ today? What keeps you from placing your trust in this one who has come and defeated death? And it makes sinners into new creation. Let me encourage, let me plead with you to trust in the one who has come and he has taken the punishment for sinners. Trust in him. He has defeated death and been raised and all those who trust in him. They will be safe. He is coming back and one day all of his people will be safe now. Paul's pattern of application of this gospel message of Christ's work on the cross continues to the very close of the letter. I find that very encouraging. I find this very humbling and very convicting that even to the last sentence of this letter, Paul is applying this gospel message. We see this in multiple different ways as he closes. And the first one I want to look at is this idea of cooperating in the gospel or working with others in ministry. We see this in two different passages. The first one is in verse 12. He says this now concerning our brother, Apollos, I strongly urge him to visit you with the other brothers. But it was not at all as well to come. Now he will come when he has an opportunity. And then if we skip down to verse 15, we see Paul pick up to say, now I urge you, brothers, you know, the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia. And they have devoted themselves to the service of the Saints. Be subject to these and every follower of labor. I rejoice the coming of Stephanus and Fortunus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refresh my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such men. We see Paul encouraging him to participate in the gospel work. The first one is with Apollos. Now, I would like to point out, Apollos was not a member of the Corinthian church. He has come in and he has watered what Paul has planted there in the gospel. He has encouraged them and taught them, caused division with them, probably not on purpose for what we see from Paul. It was never his purpose. But what Paul does is he encourages them. All right. He encourages them to continue to work with Apollos because Paul says, I have urged him to come back. To come back and to see you. I've strongly urged him. With the idea that when he shows up, the Corinthian church will accept him and to work with him. All right. Paul and Apollos were both very serious about the gospel message. They were both serious about seeing people be safe. They were both serious about the believers being healthy in the local church. We can see in First Corinthians, they apparently have some differences about how they went about that, or at least the Corinthians perceived differences in that. But Paul doesn't seem to see those as that significant. He is showing his willingness to cooperate with Apollos. Now, the second passage. Starting in verse 15, we see Paul urging the church to be willing to help out Stephanus and the ministry that he has. And we know that he was one of the first converts in the Corinthian area. They seem to know him very well. He's from this church, most likely been sent to help Paul out. And Paul says, when they show back up, be subject to them. Now, that doesn't mean that Stephanus would be in some leadership position over them. In context, what he's doing is urging the church to partner and to help Stefanos and his group when it is needed and how it is needed. You see, this ministry that Stefanos is doing is good. It's good. It's helping Paul in his work and his labors of spreading the gospel. So Paul says that when you're working, But when you find these these ministries, those have, in this case, been sent out from the church, or I would say an apolosis, apolosis case, those that there aren't part of your church that are are good ministries. Don't neglect them. I think he's piggybacking off what we just saw. I covered last week of being generous with your money. Don't neglect good and solid opportunities to give and to participate in the work of the gospel. Now, how might that work out for us at GRBC? Well, we have been blessed by the Lord to have several say several. We have two families that work in full time ministry, not here. They're in other countries in India and Guatemala. Let me encourage you to be willing to give and to participate in these local church ministries. Our missionaries have and they will continue to find opportunities where we can help them. To pay for pastors conferences, to buy and purchase blankets for the use of evangelism, to to care for other needs that will arise. To be able to bless them, the needs that they might have when they're here visiting or while they're on the field. As Paul says with Stephanas, be be subject to those, be willing to participate in those. I've been very encouraged. For what I've seen in this church so far, where we've had needs, they have not only been met almost immediately, but above and beyond with these type things. There have been probably times when you wanted to participate, but everybody else jumped on it first. Don't be discouraged. There will be opportunities. They will continue to come up where you can participate in the work of the ministry and the work of others that are working. Let me encourage you to do that in the same way that Paul says. to to to partner with these people that we have sent out now. He's also encouraging Apollos to work alongside and with the Corinthian church. I think that there are times where we can we can give to individuals and to groups that are outside of our church, maybe we know them from other churches. Maybe they're your neighbor, maybe they're your friend that you grew up with. I have several friends from high school and college that work in ministry, different places that I've participated in over the years. And for you individuals that want to give your money to some of those ministries, let me encourage you, first and foremost, don't neglect the local church. Don't neglect the ministries that we do here with our missionaries and other things that are going on. But if you want to give and you want to participate with these people, Then we have the example here that it is OK. We have freedom in that. But let me let me provide maybe a few boundaries for you to think about in doing that. If you want to work in the participation of a ministry, make sure that they're actual gospel workers, that they have a solid understanding of the first tier doctrines of the gospel ministry. Paul, Paul. has said throughout the letter that Apollos is a fellow worker of the gospel. If you want to give to other good works, that's fine, too, for charities or other things, that's fine. Those are good things. You can use them as tax write offs, whatever you need to do. But if you want to be participating in the ministry, make sure that they are actually gospel workers. That doesn't mean that you have to agree on every little theological point to participate with them. If you're looking for that, you are never going to participate. And you're using that as a reason not to be generous with your money. They don't have to be sent out necessarily from your local church, but let me encourage you that they be sent from some local church. If they're a ministry, then a local church has confirmed their call to ministry and does endorse the work that they do. Paul, the apostle, has endorsed Apollos' ministry. We need to be careful that we are we are partnering with people who are working to spread the gospel and that that are that are not being neglected by their local church. And lastly, let me encourage you to see that they are actually doing work to spread the gospel. That doesn't mean that they're strictly an evangelistic ministry. There are many groups. I know people who work with with teams that go down to abortion clinics and they're working to save The lives of unborn children, that is good. But alongside that, they're also spreading the gospel ministry. All right. So look for those things. Are people hearing the gospel? Are they working maybe to strengthen the local church? Are they supporting those who are doing this type of work like Stefana, Cecilia, Paul? So I encourage you, if you have other people, you know, and you want to participate in those ministries, that's OK. These are just some some guidelines that I see throughout the text that we need to be we need to be mindful of to use as guidelines as we work in this freedom to give. Now, as a church, we're going to focus our our collective monies on people who have been sent out from our congregations. We're going to focus on our two families of missionaries at this point. Folks have been sent out so that we can we can make sure they're taken care of. But above and beyond that, if you want to give the others, I see we have this freedom here. Now, as we navigate these situations on a case by case situation, let me encourage you, as I did last week, to be generous. To be generous and giving and working in the gospel ministries. Don't let third tier theological issues blind you and missing out on partnerships in the gospel where you can participate. Now, let me ask you. Why do we cooperate? With others in the gospel, why do we participate in these activities, why do we not just focus inside these doors and never want to do anything else? Because we want to see the nations be saved. That should be our answer, we should want the nations, we should want to see the nations to be saved, ours and others. Let me ask you, do you want that desire that you have? Do you want to see people come to know the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, let me say you should. Paul is working hard to go around and to spread the gospel. He wants those to participate with him. And these churches seem to want to see the nations be saved. So, brothers and sisters, let me ask you, if you don't if you don't have that desire to pray that the Lord would give you this desire to see the nations saved. Now, next. As we look through this last part of the letter of Paul applying the gospel, we get to verses 13 and 14, and they're a little bit in a weird spot. And probably because we see the minute Paul's writing this part, it seems to be with his own hand. And it's off the cuff things that are coming to his mind. This is a possible reason for this. And he says this in verse 13. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. There are four things that he says here. They're together. And these are calls to be strong in the faith. All right. So we saw his outline for cooperating the gospel. Now we see to be strong in the faith. Now, all these four things come from a foundation. That Paul is has built upon an understanding that the that the Corinthians, despite their problems, which are many, are indeed Christians. And he's calling them to these four things, and so I want to look at these four things, these calls that he has for the Corinthian church and see them as calls for us today. The first one, be watchful. This functions as a review of the previous parts of the epistle. Watch for false teaching. Watch for false gospels. Watch for sinful actions. Watch for how you treat each other. Watch yourselves. So, brothers and sisters here. You have been changed by Christ, so be watchful. Be watchful of all the things that Paul has written of in this letter. Go back and review them and be watchful of them in the same way that Paul is calling them to be watchful. He is calling us be watchful. Secondly, stand firm in the faith. Stand firm that Jesus's work is the only way to salvation. Stand firm, don't float away to the worship of idols. I know we've covered this multiple times throughout this sermon series. Our idols don't look like their idols. We don't have temples of worship down the street here, generally with false idols set up like you might see other places. But don't be fooled. We do have idols. Stand firm. Don't float away to the worship of the idol of materialism or the prosperity gospel of patriotism or social justice without the gospel or social power or power at your job or pride or knowledge or any other thing that may pop up that you want to worship. Now, notice some of those things aren't necessarily bad in and of themselves. But we can focus on them and we can make them an idol. Stand firm in your faith. Stand firm in your biblical convictions when the culture demands that you do otherwise. Not suggest, not gently persuade, but when the culture demands that you change. Even when those people in the culture are folks that you generally agree with. Brothers and sisters, stand firm in your biblical convictions. Make your conscience bound to God's word and stand firm. So as Paul tells us, I say again, stand firm in the gospel message and Christ's work, live God in your lives and fleeing from sin, standing firm in love. Now, the last two. Go together. Be men and be strong. These have been misused, misunderstood, used as a weapon against others. And that is wrong. Sisters in the Lord, this is not a call for you to become a man. This isn't a call for you to ignore the way that you have been wonderfully and fearfully made. This is this is not a call for you not to be a woman. Brothers in the Lord, this is not a call for you to be a macho man, man that only seeks to gratify yourself. This is not a call for you to emulate what you see on TV. This isn't a call to see yourselves as more valuable or more worthy than women in God's eyes. It's not what this is. This is a call to be courageous. This is a very unique phrase that Paul uses. It points back to Old Testament language. We read of some of this language today in Psalm 31, 24. Be strong, let your heart take courage, all of you who wait for the Lord. It is used throughout the Old Testament, several different places to to call people to be courageous in the Old Testament. If you've been here for a Deuteronomy study or if you've spent time reading the Old Testament, which hopefully you have, if not, you should be reading that. In the Old Testament, men were the ones who were called to be courageous in wartime. They were the ones who were called to lead and to be courageous in leading their families. Now, that doesn't mean that women aren't courageous in the Old Testament. I think specifically of Esther and Ruth, Naomi, Very courageous women. But when Paul uses this phrase, he is calling the church to be courageous in the gospel message and a culture around them that hates them. Remember, Corinth is a mixture of a place that would be like New York City and Las Vegas together. Imagine yourselves in the middle of that. Trying to live out the gospel message. Paul says. Be men and be strong. He's saying be courageous in the face of those who don't want you there and who laugh at you or come after you. Brothers and sisters, there will be trouble in this life. Don't be fooled by others who tell you otherwise. There will be those who hate you because you're a Christian. There will be times when doing what is biblically right, what your conscience is bound to, Will cost you money, will cost you prestigious positions, will cost you great acclaim in this world. And it might even cost you your life. We don't have that at a full extent in this country, but I see the days coming where it will get worse for us in this way. Paul is telling the church and court to be courageous, to be strong. And so I say to you today, be strong. So to recap what he said in this. These two verses and this application of the Christian life as new creation, as people who have been changed, be watchful, be firm and be courageous in the Christian walk. Because we have a great savior who will return. We have a hope that Christ is going to return and that he will make all the wrongs right. And he will make all that you see around us sinless again. And this is the good news of why we watch Stand Firm and Be Courageous, because of Christ's work for us. And lastly, his last thing that he does here is he closes this letter out. He actually continues to apply the love and the work of the gospel and Christ's work in the believer's life. He is very concerned about loving and encouraging God's church. So what we've seen him do is tell them to cooperate and ministry to be strong. And now he's given an example of how to love and encourage God's church. Certain in verse 19, the churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord come. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. There's a very real possibility that outside of the Corinthian church, very or very few people outside of the church knew each other. People didn't know many folks in the Corinthian church from other churches. There were a few Stephanas and others who had gone out, but likely there was not a lot of folks there that knew each other from the Asian churches. But what did they do? They sing greetings. Paul sends his own genuine greeting. He says, look, I'm writing this with my own hand. It's no longer a scribe, a guy who has neat handwriting. I'm no longer using a typewriter. I stopped using at the very end. I'm writing this with my own hand. Why would they do that? Because it's an encouragement. It's a way they can encourage and love on this struggling Corinthian church. They are showing their love that they have for the Corinthian church. And it's not because they know them. It's because they see that the Corinthians are not alone in God's kingdom. And that those those Asian churches see this Corinthian church and go, those are dear brothers in need of help. Dear brothers and sisters that are struggling and we want to greet you and encourage you and know that there are others out here. We have problems in our churches, too, but we, too, are with you and fighting for this gospel message. It's an encouragement to show their bond in Christ. Brothers and sisters, as opportunities arise. Let me challenge you to encourage and love on other believers that you come in contact with. Do it here in this church for folks that you don't know well, and even ones you do know really well, or do it also to others that you don't know well, that maybe you've met on mission field or maybe that you've met through family. Encourage them. Technology can be such a burden of some things sometimes. I remember when I was in college, we had these really fancy radios that could talk like 25 miles, CB radios. We could talk to police departments. They were really fancy and everybody called them the ball and chain. And then when I moved to work in the school system, we had next cell phones that could reach pretty much anywhere in the world just by pushing a little button on the side. And we all saw them as balls and chains. And now we carry those screens around with no buttons on them that we call phones that are computers. And for many of us, that oftentimes they're burdensome. But guess what? They can also be a blessing. You can easily drop A email or a text message to a believer that, you know. When you're thinking about it, you don't have to wait till you get home, get out a piece of paper, write it up, try to find a stamp. I mean, who has a stamp anymore to mail it to them or to try to find a post office? I don't even know where one is. I mean, there they are. I know where a couple are, but they're not easy to get to for me. All right. We. Well, we're wherever we can use these things to encourage that we can FaceTime with them and it not cost us any more than we're already paying. So let me encourage you. Let me encourage you to pick up this this this example of encouraging other believers. Now, if you're sending messages to our missionaries or others in other countries, make sure that you do it in an appropriate way and the way that they've outlined for us, so it doesn't make it more difficult for them on the field. If you're not sure how to do that, find myself or find Russell. He didn't know I was going to tell this. Russell will help you with that or Tom or Kevin or others that have traveled on trips. We can help you with that. But encourage them, encourage them. Make it a point to pray for those people, too, even if you don't agree with them on every theological point. Even if you don't agree with the way a lot of the things they're doing, if they're true believers, encourage them and pray for them. The Corinthian church had a lot of problems and Paul was praying for them and encouraging them. I said this a couple of weeks ago. I think Paul, the more I've read this letter and I read Paul's writing, I think he would agree with this. I could be wrong, but I think he would agree with this. That we have more in common with believers in other countries than we have with our own neighbors. Because we are redeemed in Christ. You see, all of these things in our culture that we have out there now that we may be connected with others around us that aren't believers, those are going away. But when Christ returns, And he makes all things new that is permanent. I think Paul sees that he obviously had lots of issues and disagreements with the Corinthians, but he encourages them and loves them because I think he sees something bigger in them. He sees Christ in them. So, brothers and sisters here, Paul is showing us that in Christ there is unity among believers. Even ones that are as bad off as Corinth. And they, too, need to be encouraged and they, too, need to be loved and we, too, need to be encouraged and we, too, need to be loved. So as we close today, let us strive, let us strive to be a church that is wholly unified and loving. And then let us remember that we are, in fact, saved by Christ's work, and therefore we should go and do the things that Paul has outlined for us specifically today. Participate, to love, to encourage, to stand strong in the gospel message. That is our call, what we are to do. Let us pray. Oh, Father, we we are so, so thankful. That you have sent the Lord Jesus. And that you have sent him to die on our behalf and that you have, in your goodness, poured out all that he has earned to us as believers. Oh, Father, make us the desire of our hearts to see many, many, many more people come to know you. Use us in that work. We ask that you would use us, make us willing and able participants in the spreading of the gospel. Father, strengthen us together to love each other as a church, give us opportunity to be generous and to work and to love on each other. Let us learn to be loving and gracious with those that we disagree with. and still be able to encourage them in the gospel. Oh, Father, we we ask that you would do this great work among us, that you would send the spirit to change us. And that every day and every time we come in contact with you and you're worried that we would be changed and molded into the likeness and the image of our Lord Jesus. Oh, Father, make us long for the day that he returns. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.