The Final Chapter - Romans 16:1-27
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Sermon Transcript
Do you guys remember a time in your life when you finished some sort of project or maybe a season of life? So maybe it was school or that's your undergrad or graduate and that just came to an end or maybe it's some project at home, a renovation of sorts, but you just, there's the end of a culmination of time, energy and effort and you can look back and be like, man, that was good. I put all that work into it and now it's over. And I'm very thankful. Do you guys have anything in life that you can think of and draw upon? Well, I think that's us in Romans today. We're tying it up. We're in the last chapter, and I just love that we'll be able to look back in this year of church life and say, "Man, we went through all of Romans, and that is no small feat." And so I just want to congratulate all of us together. Pastors and us, we all did it. In about half hour, we'll have done it.
This series in Romans was Paul's fullest explanation of the Gospel. We learned the good news all about Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. We went verse by verse, chapter by chapter, to unpack the layers of Paul's words as he wrote about who Jesus is, his death, resurrection, and life, and his ultimate sacrifice to us, And also about how Jesus' life was so, and who he is, was so life-giving to all of us believers. And so through this series also we've better understood our humanity's state of sin, and because of that state of sin, how we so desperately are in need of a Savior. And today we're wrapping it all up by ending by seeing evidence of the power of the gospel. Paul's gonna end just kind of laying this out of saying, "Given all of this, all this better, this is evidence of what this can look like, what this life looks like. So we want to start by going and reading, you guys can follow along on the screen or there's Bibles in seats in front of you, chapter 16, starting in verse 1, it says, "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me." Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus, they risked our lives for me. Not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been imprisoned with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was. Greet Ampliatus, my friend in the Lord. Great Urbanus, our coworker in Christ, and my dear friend, Stachys. Great Apellis, whose fidelity to the Lord has stood the test. Great those who belong to the house of Aristobulus. Great Herodon, my fellow Jew. Great those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Great Tryphina and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Great my friend, Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen the Lord and his mother, who was a mother to meet you. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the other brothers and sisters with him. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus, and her brother, or her sister, his sister, Olympua, and all the Lord's people with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
That was a gauntlet of names. A little trick. Don't stop, just keep going. Confidence, right? Just confidence. Just confidence. You just walk right through everybody. No, it's great. I love this part of the chapter in Romans. And so this book in Romans actually is like an extra part that might not have been always distributed with the letter to all of the churches. This was a very personal part of a section of this book in Romans, Romans, because Paul here is mentioning some incredible people in the church in Rome, and he's telling them this list of people who are gospel people. This whole series has been on the power of the gospel and how that changes who we are. It affects our everyday lives. It changes what we do on a daily basis, and it changes us down to our deepest level. And Paul here is wanting to end this to go, this is you, church. This is you, church in Rome. You are these people. Remember what he said back in chapter 15, verses 14? He said, "I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another." Paul knows this church in Rome is an incredible, special group of people. And Paul here takes time out of his travels and his scribing and his writing to go, "I want to make sure I let them know how amazing they are.”
Some of these people, we really don't know what they did. Some had huge jobs, some might have just been cleaning toilets. But Paul wanted them to remember that we all have a part in the role and the body. Paul talked about this in chapter 12. He says, "Remind us to not think higher than ourselves that we all have a function in the church. We're a key component, we're a key member in God's family and we all have different gifts. Some of us serving, some of us teaching, encouraging extreme generosity, leading, showing mercy. Paul here is making sure that the church in Rome and those key people don't forget their roles. You and I have a specific role in this church Spring Valley family. God has brought you here through, some of you I've heard your stories through miraculous moments, to be in this place for a purpose. And it's for each of us to fill our role and to use the gifts and talents, abilities, the way we've been created in Him for a specific purpose. And Paul here is making sure that they understand the same and without it the church cannot function. Pastor Andre is amazing. But he can't do everything. He can't do it all. He tries. Actually, that's probably me. I overreach my boundaries a lot of times. But we all have a function and a role, and when we don't do that, we're missing pieces. We don't have the full, beautiful picture that God has for us.
Paul mentions specifically people by name with their gospel impact. Priscilla and Aquila, we don't know much about them, but they risk their lies for the gospel. That's like, they put it all out there. But then there's also Urbanus, Apelles, Herodion, Rufus, and I find it extremely awesome that Paul here mentions a handful of women. In that culture, that day and age, women were just to do whatever. They weren't regarded as anything special or something amazing, which is unfortunate, but Paul here sees the greater picture, right? He talks about them. And some of them have some incredible things behind them. Mary, who worked very hard for you. I can see Mary, this one that's just going around the church. Like anything that needs to be done, Mary's on it. It may not be pretty. It may not be in front of people. It'll probably be behind the scenes that no one will ever see, but Paul knew about it because he understood what it took to lead and grow a church. Tryphena, Tryphosa, these women who work hard in the Lord. Perseus, another woman who works very hard in the Lord. I'm finding a trend here that the women are working hard. What are the dudes doing? Like Rufus, bro, get off your butt, man. Mary's running around. Do something, bro. No, but seriously, these ladies are showing up. They're putting in the effort. And again, we don't know what they did, but what's amazing is that we know that they are giving everything they have for the church and that's awesome. What a legacy.
We see so many characteristics in this short section of verses of what it means to live and be in the church, to be present, be willing, be caring, to love one another with total disregard for self. The way Jesus loved, right? And because of this, the gospel spreads. And we all probably have people through this church we know have come and gone and we've heard stories. But these stories at this moment haven't stopped here in Rome. They've traveled all the way to where Paul is. He is hearing these stories of these people in this church and he is rejoicing with them. And because of their hard work, their commitment, their persistence, their Their legacy echoes through the halls of history here in Romans as church after church, Christian after Christian reads these names. They will never be forgotten for their care for the church and their commitment to the gospel. That's legacy if I've ever heard it. That is incredible. And church, I want to encourage us. May we be like these people. May we be gospel people that, like the church in Rome, like the comparisons of Paul in this letter that we see, that his heart is so appreciative. Pastor Andre found this incredible nugget that if you were to add up all of these people's legacy and time in the church, it is over 25 years of service, just right here in these verses. How amazing is that? Can we be people of the gospel that partner with God, work with the Spirit, and shows the power of the gospel in community.
Yeah, so he's in his first 16 verses, he's turned his attention to the people of Rome and said, "Thank you for your service. We're partners together." And he also wants them to have a rich history that it started now. There's 25 years of evidence of the gospel, but he wants it to continue. And he knows what they need. He knows that they need to prioritize the gospel in order for that to happen. So let's go ahead and read the next part of our verse starting or chapter starting in verse 17. It says, "I urge you brothers and sisters to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience so I rejoice because of you. "But I want you to be wise about what is good "and innocent about what is evil. "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. "The grace of your Lord Jesus be with you." Do you remember the focus of our first 11 chapters? They were just, they're very dense, and it was all about the truth. Paul was kind of laying out argument after argument about what the gospel is about, going back explaining the Old Testament, unpacking that to make sense in light of the person of Jesus, the Messiah. And it was just, this is the truth, over and over and over again. Before he got to the practical application of the letter, he said, "I want you to know what the gospel is. I want you to know it inside and out." He wanted that to happen because he knew that division amongst the church is possible over what is the gospel. So he says, "I want you to know it. I want you to know it. I don't want you to be divided. I also don't want you to trip up over false gospels. I don't want you to be distracted by what you think may be the gospel, but really isn’t.
Pastor Chris and I were talking this week and he brought up this great point about how the early church had, when it was functioning as it should, being all about the gospel, loving each other. It's a body of people that has this gravitational pull. It draws people in. When people see a church being a church the way we should be, people are attracted to that. They want to be a part of a group of people loving each other, sacrificing for each other, caring for each other, all focused on the love of Jesus. But that can bring in some different types of people. And some people may not understand the gospel, right? They may not understand it. And there's a difference too. When someone comes in who doesn't understand the gospel, sometimes they just don't understand, but they generally want to. And so over time, you see that their heart is learning and they're trying to understand who Jesus is, what this life is about, it also can bring in people who don't understand the Gospel and don't care to. And sadly, if you're in church long enough, you just come across these people who are contrary to the Gospel for whatever reason. There are people who maybe misunderstand it and they're just fixed on it. There's no room for learning in their minds or in their lives and they just say, "No, this is it," and it's wrong. They interpret Scripture in a wrong way or Or maybe they understand the gospel but they add to it. Kind of what Paul was trying to explain. You don't get to add to the gospel. It's not this and all this, this and this. It's simply that Jesus died for you, that he loves you, and you have to give your life over to him. You don't have to do a bunch of things after that. But some people have this misunderstanding of the gospel, and some of those people love to share it. I don't know if you've been around those type of people who are all about their own gospel. "Hey, I know you believe this, but I actually know the truth, and I know it's actually this. No one else understands it, but I do." And you're like, "I don't think you understand what the Bible's about. I don't think you're getting it." But sometimes those people love to share, and Paul is saying, "Avoid those people. These people can trip you up." Maybe in the context of a church, and again, if they're willing, if there is a genuine part of them that wants to understand, maybe they can start to understand who Jesus is and what he does. of those people, it's just better to say, "Okay, I need to have some boundaries, I need to have some space, because you clearly are not drawing me to God, you're drawing me away from God." And Paul says, "I don't want that for you.”
I love what he says in verse 19, when he says, "I want you to be wise to what is good and innocent about what is evil." So what's the remedy for this? How do you avoid division and not get tripped up by false Well, the answer is to know the truth inside and out. Know the gospel. I think I used this example months ago when we were in whatever chapter this was about, but this example of counterfeit money. For those in the FBI who study counterfeit, do you think that they spend most of their time studying the counterfeit bills? Do they spend most of their time studying what's out there that is false? Or do they spend most of their time studying and knowing the real currency? The answer is they spend all their time, all their time studying real currency. They know the feel of it, they know all the different details, all the look of it, so that when something false comes by, they can automatically know, "This isn't it. I know the feel. I know where something should be. This is not real." And so we need to have that about the Gospel. We need to know the truth, focus on the truth, so that when something false or not aligned with the gospel comes in front of us, we can say, "Nope, I know what the Bible says, and that's not it." The problem when we start to put too much attention on things that aren't true, when we focus on... and sometimes our heart is in the right place, like, "I want to know what's false so that I can steer away from it." And maybe it's good to just be aware of what's out there, but when we spend too much time focusing on that, what it can do is it can breed fear within us, it can breed hatred, it can breed a desire for division. We no longer want to have compassion or kindness or generosity or a desire to see those people who think they know the truth but really don't. We don't really want to see them come into the family of God.
When focused on the truth, we'll know the truth through the Spirit of God in our hearts, and we'll better live out the truth and live out the gospel and better be Jesus for the people around us. So know the gospel inside out. And church high souls want to tell us that this is a lifelong pursuit. We have Bible studies and maybe if you've been in the church long enough, you've done the same Bible study over and over again. And that's okay. It's okay to, you don't have to say, "Oh, I've already gone through that book. I'm good." No, we are lifelong learners of the gospel because there is so much in here that we could could spend our whole lives studying it and still not know everything there is to know about God. There were these rabbis in the Old Testament and even now there's rabbis who spend all their life focused on maybe a chapter, just one chapter. They know the rest but like this is my focus, this is my emphasis, I know this chapter. And over a lifetime they are still learning things. They could have been rabbis for 50 years and said I know whatever it is, Psalm something, inside and out. I've studied it and meditated on it for 50 years, and I am still getting new truths out of it in my lifetime. And so I just want us to have that perspective, that as we know the truth, just have that expectation that this is going to be a lifelong journey of continuing to know more and more and more about Jesus. And so we see that Paul cares for the Roman church and for their souls, and he knows what they need, and it's most importantly to know the gospel. But he also brings up the point that we shouldn't be alone in knowing the gospel.
Yeah, and this leads us to our next section, where Paul here actually shifts back to talk about a few more people. He's going to give a few more shout-outs here, but what we have here is actually on the other side of the letter. This is actually Paul's personal crew. This is his team. And so he says, and starting in verse 21, "Timothy, my coworker, sends his greetings to you. So does Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my fellow Jews. I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord, Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings." Wait a minute. We've been talking this whole time that Paul wrote this letter. But then this one bro shows up like right at the end and he's like, "I actually wrote it down." So what do we got going here? Well, real quick, just a little rabbit trail here. Tertius is actually what we call a "amanuensis," which is actually a secretary who's assigned to an employer by taking verbal dictation, copying, and writing on their behalf. So basically, in short, Paul is just teaching and talking and saying this, and this bro is just trying to write down as fast as he can. I think some of these sections in Romans, he would be like, "Okay, time out! Pause, Paul! I gotta catch up here real quick. Say that one more time for me. I wanna make sure this is right.
But what we see here are more gospel people, more gospel people, and this is Paul's personal team, his team with accountability. And what I find most interesting about this is that Paul wasn't solo. We think about the apostle Paul, we think about this superhero, super giant Christian that he was, and he's out there just doing all this stuff. He's trailblazing for the gospel. He's on the forefront of church multiplication and church planting and making new churches. And we sit here and we go, "Wait, Paul had people? Paul needed people? One hundred percent." Paul here in himself is saying, "You guys can't do this alone. I can't do it alone." And if Paul can't do it alone, yeah, you and I, we ain't doing it on ourselves. We ain't doing this alone. Like, there's no way that we can do this on our own. And this is incredibly encouraging for me. I don't know about you, but this is incredibly encouraging for me because the world tells us that we have to do it all, carry it all, make it all, be it all alone. And Paul here is saying, "No. That's not how you do it. Nobody can do this alone. We need a team. We need support.
We need a church family. And this is Paul's church family that are with him at all times, traveling, helping, supporting, loving, caring for him. We are not meant to live life alone. That's just not how we were created. This is a core value of who we are here at Spring Valley. We are meant to live life in community. That's why we have these events like Friendsgiving and chili cook-offs and Memorial Day barbecues. It's for us to be with each other and hang out. We run semesters of doing community groups. The name is literally in the title of what it is because we wanna be with one another. 'Cause when we gather together on Sundays and we're not all here, we're missing part of who we are. We're missing part of our family. And it is our desire to have everybody present every single Sunday. Let me say that again. It is our desire for all of us to be here present every single Sunday to hold it a priority, to protect it, to be here together. Why not to make Pastor Andre and myself feel great about ourselves? The house was packed today. We're such great pastors. No, because we know so much life happens in passing with each other. You're grabbing a muffin, a cup of amazing coffee, to hanging out after church to go, "Hey, do you want to go grab lunch? Let's grab lunch." There's a group in the church that started just meeting on Fridays at Pete's Pizza. And there's nothing that Andre and I started. It was just like, they're like, "Hey, we're going to meet Fridays at Pete's, and just can you let the church know about it? We just want want to hang out. Yeah! Let's go! That's what life is about, is this community together. And Paul sees this, and without us here present every single week, we're missing God's beautiful picture. And I think it's hard because in our world we've accepted minimal commitment as full commitment. We've allowed that culture to kind of seep into our lives and I think it's this audacious lie that Satan has allowed Christians to believe. That minimal commitment is actually full commitment. If we would think about this, tell this to Paul. If he didn't have full commitment of his crew, without Tertius present, we wouldn't have this full letter to Rome. There's another dude in here by the name of Timothy. I don't know if you've heard of him. There's two letters written to him in the New Testament. He was at the forefront of the gospel in Asia Minor. Without Timothy fully present, we wouldn't have the church in Corinth, we wouldn't have the church in Thessalonica, we wouldn't have the church in Philippi, and the church in Asia Minor would not have ever existed. This is huge.
Paul reminds us in Romans 12, 1 through 2, "Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. Church, we can't behave like the world and live like a Christian. Those are contradictory to each other. Can we be in the world, around other people, hanging out with them, eating pizza, having a good time, laughing? Yes, absolutely, 100%. Being a Christian doesn't mean you isolate yourself from everybody in your life. I can only hang out with Christians. No, that's opposite, true. But our actions should be different than the world. Our commitment should be different than the world. Our priorities should be different than the world. The way we live our lives, our calendar, our day-to-day actions need to be different than the world. And Paul here shows us how to step into accountability and responsibility and sacrifice and humility. Paul could probably tell every single one of those bros how to live their lives. He knew it all. And yet, he surrounded himself with other people to speak truth into his lives. We should do the same.
The scripture gets quoted a lot, but I always come back to it, of Proverbs 27:7, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” We have a dull blade epidemic in the church. We have a dull blade epidemic in the church today. We were walking around as dull Christians and we wonder why we don't fully commit to being in church community. And we wonder why when we walk through Christ that it isn't different in our lives, it isn't acute, it isn't effectual against this world around us. Church, we're just gnawing. Gnaw, gnaw, gnaw. Just, you ever use a dull blade on anything? It is the most frustrating thing in the world, right? You try to slice a tomato with a dull blade, you end up with tomato sauce, okay? There ain't no slicing of tomatoes for your sandwich anymore. And we're going around trying to hit back at Satan with a dull blade and we're like, "Ah, Christianity doesn't work." Well, if we had our lives sharpened in Christ by being around each other daily, weekly, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, then we would have this effective tool that God has given us. We're not sharp. And Paul here understands that so well. And the best way to live in community, to be focused in the truth, to have a team and to surround ourselves, yourself, with like-minded community of faith, making each of us stronger and stronger in the gospel.
And Paul has shown evidence of the power of the gospel by listing all the people whose lives have been transformed and are partners with him for the gospel. He shared the need for the gospel to be a priority in everyone's life, and now he hasn't done it alone. And so let's read now his final words of this letter to Rome. It says, "Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writing by the command of the eternal God, so that all Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith, to the only wise God, be glory forever through Christ Jesus, amen.
Little side note, I'm very thankful that you got all the hard names, and I got like none in the whole chapter there. Was that planned? I don't know.
So, in this final section, Paul is blessing them. He's blessing the church, and this is a form of a doxology, which from previous chapter, we know that doxology means words of praise. And so he is wrapping up this doxology with themes that are all throughout the letter to Rome. He's talking about the mystery revealed in the work in the person of Jesus Christ. He's mentioning that the Gentiles are now a part of God's kingdom. They can be, they can, yeah, they need the gospel, and they are welcome in the kingdom of heaven. And he's also talking about the need for our obedience to God. Paul's giving his blessing to the Roman church and he's telling them to live missionally. You need to live with intentionality in your life.
I had a recent conversation about this desire in my own life, to live more intentionally, live more missionally, be more prayerful over people that I come in contact with, praying for them by name, that God, you would help me be a part of their story. If that's your will, God, if you want to use me as a tool for your gospel in that person's life, it's so easy to be passive. It's so easy to say, "God, if you want this to happen, great, but you've got to make that happen. If the door opens, sure, I'm just going to stay here, though, until you really force me through that door. I'm very comfortable where I'm at with my faith, but God, if you shove me through that door, then sure, I'll do the work for you." And that was me, if I'm being honest, if I'm confessing that right now, that was me. When I get comfortable or when I'm stressed out in life, I tend to just kind of take a step back and be more passive in my faith. And I want to be intentional and say, "God, no, where, I'm looking now. God, where can I be a tool for your gospel? Where can you use me? God, is this it? God, I'm talking with someone. Should I bring up you right now or is there a way to steer this to church, to the gospel?" That's what Paul wants. He wants focus on the gospel. He wants the church in Rome to be living missionally, to be living in their everyday life, looking for opportunities to spread the gospel.
And he knows this because the gospel, once you read and understand and live out the gospel, it means action. The gospel does not, it does not yield passivity or inaction. It's not something that once you learn it, you're like, well, that's great. And now that is something in my life and my status has kind of changed, but my life continues the same. No, it means something different. And Paul is saying, "Hey, now that you know church in Rome, now that I've had 11 chapters of what the truth is, you've had other chapters to know what this life should look like, now here's your blessing, go and do it, go and live it out." He's saying, "Church in Rome, go, go spread the gospel." And he's saying to us today, Spring Valley Church, Go, go and spread the gospel. Live out the gospel. So as we wrap up, I just wanna ask a few questions from our chapter today. Where are you seeing the evidence of the gospel at work in your life? Paul just presented those first 16. Here's the evidence of the gospel in my life. Here's all these people. This is evidence of God at work.
And so if you pause and reflect on your life, where are you seeing the evidence of the gospel at work in your life? Are you pursuing the gospel? Are you committed to knowing it inside and out? The lifelong journey of knowing the gospel. And then do you have that team around you? Maybe you're looking around this church and this is your team and I love that. Hopefully we're on your team. I wanna be on your team. Pastor Chris and I wanna be on your team of people who are encouraging you, supporting you, sharpening you. And we want you to sharpen us too. Do you have that team around you? And then are you ready to live missionally? Are you ready to not be passive in your faith, but to be active, to be praying to God, God, where can I work? Where's an opportunity for me to be of use for your kingdom?
So there you have it. The Book of Romans. Give yourself a hand. - Good job everybody. - You made it! - Good job everybody. - Proud of you guys. The book of Romans, as we stated at the beginning, is all about the power of the gospel. The power of gospel in Jesus, the power of the gospel in his death on the cross, his burial, his resurrection, the ascension, and how this miracle, 2000 something years ago, changed our lives, changed who we are. This isn't a something where you just, you pray a prayer and you check the box and you're like, sweet, I'm in.
The gospel doesn't stop there. God wants this gospel to change who we down to, like our cellular and molecular level of our lives transformation. That's the power of the gospel. And as we live our lives, this power of the gospel should just ooze out of us. It should change the way that we think, the way we act, we live, the words that we use, how we interact with other people here on this planet earth. It should change us. And it is a miracle that we even have the ability to even talk about this power of the gospel. I don't want us to forget that. So the question for us, might add more questions. - That's great. - I need the questions, they're good. - That was like a sermon question.
Here's my book of Romans question. - Serious questions. - Book of Romans question. Will we truly embrace and live in this power of the gospel for our lives? Will this version of the gospel just stop at a prayer or will it change us through the power of Lord almighty and change our lives, change our families, change our church, change our community? Really, the choice is ours. I know what I will choose. The question is, do you know what you will choose? Let's pray.
Jesus, we thank you so much for your servant, Paul. God for his faithfulness and willingness to take the time not only to detail, like down of the smallest piece of the gospel, just to explain it to the church in Rome, God, but to continue on with all that he did for the gospel. Jesus, we're so grateful for him. And Jesus, we're grateful for you. God, thank you for your power of the gospel. Thank you that it's bigger than who we are. It's more complicated than we can fully understand. It's something that is only something as big as it can come from you, God. Not some story some person made up or some fairy tale, but that God, you came down from heaven, you gave your life for us so that our broken relationship with God would be able to be restored through the power of the gospel. Jesus, let this transform who we are, the way that we live. Let it transform where we live, where we learn, where we work, where we play. God, that we would see our community saturated with your power of the gospel to change this world. God, give us gospel appointments where we get to show up in people's lives and just to share love with them. We don't have to have all the answers. We don't have to have the perfect pitch. We don't have to have all this salvation stuff memorized, but just to show up and to show them love the way that you showed us love on the cross, God. I pray that for each of us this week in these coming weeks. God, we're grateful for who you are. We thank you time and time again. We love you, Jesus. Amen.