Loving One Another - Part 3

Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles once again to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 for a time of study and the word this morning. And we're going to be focusing our attention on verse 11 as we continue working our way pretty slowly through Romans chapter 12 exploring the implications of the gospel to our lives and to our relationships with one another. Let me start with this, though, about a year ago now, I had a memorable moment of boredom.

I was, sitting at home on my computer, or the computer was on me, and, it was my laptop, so it was on me and, and I was doing some work on my computer and I, I finished doing some of the stuff that I needed to do and then, I just sat there lethargic and bored. This is something of a confession because I have no reason to ever be lethargic and bored, but I was sitting there not knowing what to do with myself, and out of sheer boredom, my fingers were on the keyboard in that middle row where they're supposed to be, and, and I typed the letters of that middle row from the outside in in alternating sequence just real fast.

And this is essentially what, what I typed. A semicolon S L D K F J.

And And then just to do something, I press the search button on Google. And, and to my amazement, there were over 200,000 results that came up. Apparently I am not the only one who out of sheer boredom has done that on my keyboard. And at the very top of the page of those results was a thing that said Urban Dictionary, and then it actually had a definition.

Of this sequence of letters and here's the definition. It's a phenomenon that happens to a computer's keyboard when a human being is bored to death. And I'm not kidding, I felt this wave of exposure. I felt like I had been caught.

Like Google was saying to me, I know exactly what's going on with you right now. You're bored to death. And I've thought about it since then. In fact, I researched that even more.

There's coffee mugs and stuff with this, these letters on it. It's crazy. But I've often thought back on, on that moment and what I did in that moment and I don't even know how you would pronounce this. Oillitophagia.

Oscilitophagia? Is that good? But if I could define that expression in my own way, I would define it as the stuff we do that has absolutely no eternal value or benefit. Anything you do that just has no meaning, it's a waste of your God-given abilities, your God-given time, and the resources that God has given to you.

You could call that a solid. And it's an utter waste. And I, I believe that one of the ways of looking at the book of Romans is that Paul is seeking to deliver us from a solidiphagia. because what he does in Romans chapters 1 through 11 is he confronts us with the claims of the gospel and he peers behind the mask that we all have up.

And says, I know who you are, and you are far more of a sinner than you ever thought that you were, but beginning in Romans chapter 3, verse 21 and following, Paul begins to lay out for us the incredible, amazing glories of the grace and the love and the mercy. the freedom and the relationship and the power, that is contained for us in the gospel for those of us that have put our trust in Jesus. What Paul is describing, In terms of the forgiveness and relationship and power and freedom, mercy, grace and love, all of that is a part of our new normal now as believers in Christ.

But Paul does not just do that.

Beginning in Romans chapter. 12 and verse 1, Paul starts delivering to us a call, many calls telling us what to get up and do with our lives in response to these things that he has been communicating to us. And in Romans 12:1 and following, we're learning how to respond to the gospel, and how to, unleash the power and the glory of the gospel in our lives in really amazing ways. And in verse one, Paul is basically saying, let the gospel, shape your worship.

Verse 2, let the gospel shape your transformation. Verse 3 through 5, let the gospel shape your thinking. And in verses 6 through 8, let the gospel shape the way that you do community. With your brothers and sisters in the Lord.

And beginning in verse 9, which we've spent the last few weeks looking at, we come to a very dense section. Of the book of Romans in chapter 12 where Paul begins to teach us about this thing called love, and he's explaining to us how it is that we can love one another, what that actually looks like, and how to walk in agape love, and we're going to continue on that journey focusing on verse 11. today, so if you want to give a title to the message, it would be Loving One Another Part.

3.

We have seen how this section of Romans 12 is dense with words for love. We have agape, that root word, showing up twice throughout the rest of the book or the rest of Romans chapter 12. Plos, another word for love, shows up 3 times, and astorge, another word for love, shows up once in this section. Clearly, Paul is wanting to teach us how to walk in love and explain to us what love looks like.

Let me begin reading in verse 9 of Romans 12. He says, Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. We can translate this literally in this way.

Paul says, Agape, that's the heading, that's the topic. That he establishes. And here's what walking in Agape looks like. No hypocrisy, he says, hating the evil, clinging to the good, devotedness to one another and brotherly love, leading one another in honoring, in diligence, not lagging in the spirit, being fervent and for the Lord.

Serving What we're seeing are what we can consider to be 8 ways that we are to show true agape love to one another, and we've learned much along the way. If you've not been with us, maybe go online and listen to the messages as we're trying to unpack what it means to walk in agape means to let go of hypocrisy, to hate evil with a passion, to love good so much that we cling to the good. And also we, we look at one another and we view each other as family and we're devoted to one another as family.

And we also learned that agape means taking the initiative and treating each other with, with honor.

So we don't sit on our hands and wait for people to treat us the way that we want to be treated. No, we introduce honor into the situation and we take the lead in honoring other people with the love that we show to them. And we are all the recipients of a salvation that is dependent upon a Savior who did not wait for us to honor Him. If you read Romans chapter one, you see that the downward spiral that we all experienced in our life began with a refusal to honor God.

So we did not honor Him. And God did not wait for us to honor him before he began to honor us with His love. But Christ left heaven's glories and came into this broken world, died on the cross, and reached out to us in love. And giving us the honor as an heir of eternal life.

And so if we're the recipients of a salvation that is dependent upon a savior, who did not sit on his hands and wait for us to take the first step, Then why do we demand that of other people in our lives? Why do we demand that of our spouses and of our children and of our parents and of our brothers and sisters in the Lord? When you take the initiative in showing honor, you're, you're, you're never more like Jesus than in such moments. There's a 6th way that we are to show true agape love for one another that we're going to begin to explore this morning, and that is be swift, not slothful.

In serving one another, be swift, not slothful in serving one another. In verse 11, Paul says, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, and serving the Lord. Let's unpack what he means when he says not lagging behind. In diligence, first of all, the word that is translated diligence is the word that speaks of speed.

It speaks of haste, actually being in a hurry to do something and to get somewhere. If there's a command in the Greek New Testament that involves the use of this word, the command implies hurry up and do. This, so it speaks of a swiftness to act. And then once you've initiated that action of serving other people, you persist in that.

There is an earnestness as you engage in this task, you are conscientious in acting. Making every effort is the idea. So diligence is a good translation as if we think of it as being swift to, to move into action, by way of serving other people and then persisting in that and not being easily discouraged, and being earnest, and conscientious in doing what it is that God wants you to do in service to others, and doing it with all of your might. So Paul is essentially telling us that we need to be, to be swift, diligent, and earnest in our service of others.

And then notice what he says. He says not lagging behind in And diligence he could have just said be diligent and he would have communicated fully, I think the idea he could have said don't lag behind, and that's a strong enough word that would have conveyed a similar idea. He packs the two together to really press home his point. The expression lagging behind speaks of being slothful.

it, it can actually have the idea of being slow to do what needs to be done. One way of looking at this is he's saying in your quickness to serve, don't be slow. So he's reiterating the idea, but he's bringing out a different nuance because this isn't just laziness, but, notice the idea as you see it on the screen. It speaks of someone who views what needs to be done as too much trouble.

When you see this word, think of the word trouble. And, and someone who's guilty of this laziness and sloth is someone who sees something that they're being called upon to do, or maybe that they know that they need to do. And it's just too much bother. It's too much trouble.

And so they don't do it, or they don't do it as earnestly and as quickly as they ought to. Take a child, for example, in the home, and Young people, your parents may give you an instruction and say, I need you to clean your room. I need you to pitch in and to help out with what we are doing and maybe you just don't even do what they called upon you to do. Why?

Because it's just too much trouble. They don't understand how much trouble this really is and it's just too much bother. Or maybe you do it, but you, you do it unhappily because that's part of the idea of this term. One commentator suggests it has the idea of being irked by the demands of, so you'll do it, but you'll do it in a huff.

And halfheartedly, even something as simple as your parents telling you to get out of bed in the morning, and, and you don't give heed to what they're telling you to do, why don't you get out of bed? Because it's too much trouble to get out of bed. I was guilty of that as a teenager. My mom would call from downstairs and call my name to get up, and, and I would not get out of bed.

I would just lift my left leg and let my foot hit the floor real hard to create the illusion that I had gotten out of bed. But I'm still lying there in bed, and she would call a few times, and it was not until my dad, who was a career Marine, came upstairs. And told me to get out of bed, that I would jump out of bed with the fear of God in my heart. So I'm not ragging on you guys like this is something I've never been guilty of, but, but even something like that as simple as that, why don't you do it?

Why don't you get out of bed when you're told to get out of bed? It's because you think in that moment that it's too much trouble. You think your mom and dad don't understand how hard it is to sleep. I've been sleeping for 8 hours and it's worn me out.

I got a rest from my sleep that I have been engaging in. and I know parents, you're probably loving this and elbowing your kids, but what, what about you? What about you? What about me?

we know as parents that we're supposed to be consistent, that we are supposed to hold the line and keep our expectations high, and that there are times where we need to discipline in the right way. There are times where we need to sit down with our children. And engage them on a heart level, not just in terms of their behavior. And do we do that with consistency?

Often we don't. Why? It's just too much trouble. It's too much hassle.

Guys, there's a long list of things that we know that God wants us to do, that we don't do, because whether we consciously think this or not, we think it is too much trouble. And Paul is saying, I don't want you guys in this ministry of walking in agape and doing the things that need to be done and serving one another and blessing one another and getting involved in each other's lives. Yes, it's sometimes it can be daunting and demand a lot, but don't, don't view that as too much trouble or an irksome duty or responsibility.

This exact Greek word shows up in Philippians 3:1.

Where Paul says to the Philippians to write the same things again, is no trouble to me. It's how the new American Standard translates it, and I think rightly so. And it's a safeguard for you, Paul. Paul says, what I'm about to say in this chapter, some of the warnings I'm about to deliver.

I've not only said this to you, but I've actually written this to you before. And what, I feel like I need to write it again, but what? That's OK. I'll sit down and write this again.

It's not too much trouble for me for you to be properly safeguarded. And to be cared for involves an investment of time and energy and thought on my part. And it's not too much trouble for me to do this for you. Isn't that the essence of love?

We've all had this happen to us that, that someone has gone way out of their way to be kind to us and to serve us and to meet some need, and we thank them, but we apologize to them. We're like, man, I can't believe how much time you've taken for me, and how you've gone out of your way and what you've sacrificed for me. And what does a person walking in agape say in response to that? It's no trouble at all.

We even talk this way. Oh, it's, it's no trouble. It's no trouble. We're happy to Invest that time and energy in service to a brother or sister, and we don't view that investment of time and energy and whatever hassles go with it as trouble that would cause us to step away and not do what it is that God wants us to do.

Someone walking in Agape looks at the trouble that's involved in serving another and embraces that and relabels it and says this is no trouble. It's no trouble at all. one of the dearest passages to me in the scripture, and it's a different word that's used in this other passage, but it's a very similar idea. In Hebrews chapter 12, we're told to look to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame.

Now we use the word despise to speak of hate, but that's not what this term means. It means to think lightly of, to count as nothing. in fact, the same word is the word that's used in Romans 2:4 about do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience. It thinks it means to think lightly of something to count it as of no account, as nothing.

And quite literally, the idea is Jesus Christ had his eyes on the joy that was set before him, and so much so. that all of the trouble that he endured, In accomplishing our salvation and ultimately bringing us to glory, in order for that to happen, he had to endure the shame and the suffering of the cross, and compared to the joy set before Him, he counted the shame and the suffering as nothing. That's amazing. When we get to heaven, we're going to make a big deal out of Jesus suffering on our behalf, and we're going to be going up to Jesus and saying, Jesus, I can't believe all that you endured so that I, a rebel sinner, could be transformed and now glorified and be here with you forever in heaven.

Thank you for all that you did. And Jesus' response will be something like, it was nothing. It was nothing. 2 years ago my son Benjamin started taking Spanish from a Spanish tutor in Murrieta, and I resolved that I would learn Spanish with him.

And that resolve lasted all of 3 weeks. But not before I learned that the Spanish word nada means Nothing. And so I was, I was impressed to learn that one of the ways of saying you're welcome. In Spanish is denada.

I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that right. But I remember being amazed at that because, the idea of that someone says thank you and you reply by saying, it's nothing. Nothing. For you?

This is nothing. And there's something of that sentiment in the heart of Christ when we're in heaven, enjoying the blessings of heaven. I don't think Jesus is going to intrude upon those moments of joy and say, Oh man, you guys cannot believe what I endured for you to be able to enjoy this. Oh, the suffering was incredible.

That's not what he's going to do. He despised all of that and counted it as nothing compared to the joy of what he was striving after in enduring the suffering that he endured. Here's the deal, guys. Think of all the trouble.

Jesus Christ leaving heaven's glories. When we get to heaven, we're going to be amazed that Jesus was willing to leave this place, to come down to a broken planet. Full of sorrow and brokenness and sin, and to live for 30+ years, and then to suffer and die the death that he died. You, you can look at all that Christ endured and put the word trouble upon it, and we are daily the recipients of a salvation that comes to us because Jesus was willing to endure that trouble for our ultimate and eternal good.

And we learn in Hebrews 12 that he looks at all of that trouble and says Danata. It's nothing. And if we are the recipients of this great salvation that depends upon a savior embracing this trouble and then counting it as no trouble, then what is it that stands in the way of us serving one another? What troubles do we have to embrace, and we're not going to embrace our little troubles?

That may stand in the way of us serving one another. No, the way of the cross, the path of Christ's likeness is to engage in serving one another and mirroring the very heart of Jesus to each other in service to one another. And Paul says that the path of agape is to be swift. Not lazy, not slothful and serving one another.

You, you live by this and you'll be very much like Christ. I really want to encourage you guys as we look at all of these descriptions of love, don't first think, Oh man, I got to do this. Whoa, I just, I got to change. I'm, I'm so messed up.

Now, let your first thought be to go to Christ, who fully lived out all of these. Wow. This is, this is an incredible description of you, Jesus, and be drawn to the beauty of Jesus Christ, and cherish the salvation that you enjoy as a result of the fact that someone already lived this. And then be transformed by that beauty that you behold in Him.

There's a 7th way to go about showing true agape love to one another, and that is to maintain a fervency of spirit, expressing itself in serving one another, maintaining a fervency of spirit, expressing itself in serving one another. He says not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, being fervent in spirit. Paul is calling upon us to be and to do. I love the word fervent.

It comes from the Latin word fervens, which means to boil, which is exactly what the Greek word means. Paul is literally commanding us to be boiling. In spirit to be seething in spirit. I don't know if he's saying that we need to be boiling within our spirits, or as some would suggest, be boiling by the agency of the Holy Spirit, Spirit capital S.

Perhaps both. Is are involved there, but what he's saying is we don't just serve one another and do the required thing, but we do so from the overflow, the boiling over that is taking place in our spirit. What we learn here is, is a few things. I learned personally that I love others by keeping myself from being lukewarm or even cold spiritually.

The worst thing I can do for my wife, my children, the people in my care group, the congregation of Cornerstone is to allow myself to be lukewarm. or even cold, spiritually. I am of no value to anyone in my life, and any eternally significant way when I allow myself to be lukewarm, or my heart to be cold as ice. I love others from keeping that from happening and keeping my heart in a state of boiling over.

I love others by nurturing a boiling of spirit which will express itself in service to others. One writer says it this way, this is, this is a vision of what would be awesome to see here at Cornerstone and in any church that every member is a radiating center for a love that extends itself to each and all throughout the church. Everyone is radiating the love of Christ. Their hearts are a boil.

With the love of Jesus Christ. For Paul to speak this way that we are to be effervescing in spirit, fervent in spirit, boiling in spirit, indicates for us that apparently to be boiling in our spirits is a choice. To be boiling over in our spirits is a choice. We have to make a choice.

OK, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to boil over in my spirit, but we also observed that it's more than a choice. You can't just say, OK, starting right now, I'm gonna boil over in my spirit. All right, boil.

That's not, it's a choice, but it's more than a choice to be boiling over in our spirit. in order for that to happen, we must also not just make a choice that that's the state that we want our hearts to be in, but we then must locate our hearts next to a heat source, right? If I've got a pan that has some water in it over here and it's lukewarm room temperature water and I need to get that water to a boil and over here is a stove and a flame on it, in order to get this water boiling, I need to take this pan of water and move it close to the stove and set it on top of that flame, and in a few minutes this water will begin to boil.

And so if I want to walk in the path of agape love, it's critical that I, I realize that, what, my heart needs to be boiling for the Lord and for others, boiling with agape love.

And if that's going to happen, I must want that to happen, number one, but I also must move myself close to a heat source. And then maintain my connection to that heat source, so that my heart, my spirit is seething, boiling over. You say, well, what is that heat source, that I need to move my heart close to in order for it to be boiling over. Paul would say, well, Now why I spent 315 verses giving you gospel before I gave you this description of love.

Paul would say Romans 1 through 11, the content that is described there, the gospel, that's the heat source. That's what you need to move your heart close to. In Romans chapter 1 and verse 16, Paul speaks of the gospel, and he describes the gospel as the power of God, the dunamis of God into salvation to everyone. Who is believing.

This is the power of God. This is the heat source. And if your heart is cold, or even lukewarm, and you want your heart to be set ablaze by God Almighty, by the Holy Spirit of God, move your heart close to this heat source, and let it set your heart on fire. We have a responsibility to do this.

If I love my brothers and sisters in Christ, If I love my wife, if I love my children. If I love you, I will feel it incumbent upon me. To be preaching the gospel to myself every day, and nurturing this burning within me, keeping my heart ablaze. Regarding the word of God, even Jeremiah described it as a fire that was burning in his bones.

And so imagine what Jeremiah would say of the gospel that we have sitting in front of us. Every day, you've got an amazing heat source that's sitting in your home. And what are you doing with this? Are you moving close to this and allowing it to warm your heart?

And to get your heart boiling to where from the overflow of that boil you're serving other people and your service is being shaped. and directed by the gospel. I know that we don't always feel the sensation of boiling over, and we're just always excited about everything that we have to do. And I'm not really pushing for that, but what I'm pushing for is that all of us practice the disciplines that are provided for us in God's word.

Wherein we are nurturing, we are nurturing this boil. What are you doing? What do you have in your daily schedule in the way of spending time in the words, spending time in prayer in the very presence of God, who is himself a consuming fire? What are you doing in the way of intentional fellowship and living life together with brothers and sisters in the Lord?

What are you doing? With any intentionality to bring this heat into your life that your heart might be boiling over with the agape love of Of Jesus Christ that is found in the gospel, you owe that to the people in your life that you are called to love, to nurture this flame, this heat within you. That is the way of agape love. There's an 8th.

way that we are to walk in agape love and show true agape love to one another, and that is to serve one another with a mindfulness that we are serving the Lord Jesus, serving one another with a mindfulness that we are serving the Lord Jesus. Paul says, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. The word serving is actually the word for slaves. So he's telling us to be slaving.

Nowadays, we speak of slaving, we'll use that term when we're working really hard. but actually, Paul's use of this term denotes the idea that when we do work for one another, we're doing work as a slave whose entire work is directed by his master's will. When a slave in New Testament times got up in the morning, he didn't just say what do I want to do today and then make his own schedule and then come to his master and say, Hey master, I've got a free half hour at 3:30. Is there anything you need for me to do?

That's not how slaves lived their lives. They woke up in the morning. And from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, they were owned by their masters, swallowed up in his will. And their first and burning question, every moment of the day was, what does my master want from me?

And everything I do, As a slave of my master, I do as a representative of him. And so we are under the rule of Jesus. And when we serve one another, we are mindful of the fact that ultimately we are serving Him. And there, there's so much we can ponder here just real quick.

what it, what it means is that we serve one another with a mindfulness that in serving one another, we're actually serving Jesus. It means looking at our brothers and sisters, and in one sense, viewing them as Christ. Like, how would I treat Christ? I'm going to treat this brother or sister the way that I would treat Jesus if this were Jesus.

And Matthew 25, Jesus says, he welcomes people into his kingdom, and he says, Man, you, when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink when I was hungry, you gave me something to eat. And, and when I was homeless, you, you brought me into your home and you met my needs. You visited me when I was in prison. And Jesus says that this judgment scene, people are going to say, When did we ever do this for you?

They're going to be surprised that Jesus is speaking this way. And Jesus says, inasmuch as you've done it to the least of my brethren, you've done it to me. So when, when I serve you, I'm actually serving the Lord Jesus. When we invite others into our home, where it's, we need to invite others into our home with the relish that we would have if we were actually inviting Jesus into our home.

So it's seeing Christ in one another. And as I serve you, I'm doing so with the mindfulness that I'm serving Him in you. Also, when we serve one another, we're, we're serving one another for the Lord, because he commands it. And along those lines, we serve others, we serve one another ultimately to please the Lord, rather than being a man pleaser.

See, there's a right way and there's a wrong way to actually serve one another. I can serve you. But I can serve you in a way where I'm not being ruled over by Jesus. I'm actually being ruled by you.

And it's your approval that I crave. I want you to think highly of me. And so I'll do anything I can in order to gain your approval, your affection. It's people like this that end up, they're not able to say no whenever they're asked to do anything, because they, they're, they, they crave the approval, they're afraid to let down or disappoint other people because ultimately, in serving others, those others are their master rather than Jesus.

And guys, we have to think this way when we serve one another, we need to realize, no, Jesus is my master. This brother or sister is just my brother or sister. Jesus is my master, and I do his bidding. We have to think this way because what, there are times where our master Jesus will call us to step towards a brother or sister.

And to do something or to say something. That we know immediately will not make that brother or sister happy. It doesn't even make us happy, but we're not serving ourselves. We're not our own master, and we know that immediately in the near term, it might actually make us this other brother or sister's worst nightmare.

But what? I'm willing to do that because this is what Jesus, who is my real master, calls me to. If we don't serve one another with a mindfulness that Christ is our master, then there is much that we are called to do in the way of admonishing one another, and, challenging one another. Sometimes rebuking one another.

there's much that we're called to do that we just won't do. If we're not operating off the premise that Christ is our Master. Also, it means that we serve one another in the Lord. That's one way of translating this.

In other words, as his representative. Like I said a few minutes ago that not only should I serve you, In the sense that I see Christ in you and I'm serving you the way that I would serve Christ. But there's also a sense in which I serve you as an ambassador of Christ, as a representative of Christ. I, with a mindfulness that as I am serving you, you are tasting something of the very heart of Jesus Christ through Me.

And so we may serve one another and someone may be just be blown away. You are just the most amazing person. I can't believe all you're doing for me. And our response is basically, actually, the goodness you've just tasted, it comes from my master.

I'm just representing him. Let this cause you to love Jesus, all the more. Brother, let me be your servant. Let me be as Christ to you.

These things that we pondered this morning, this is the path. Of agape love, it's a beautiful path, and we can be grateful that we have a savior who has walked this path and shown us the way, what a savior he is and what a delight to grow more and more day by day into His wonderful likeness. Let's pray and ask God to help us. To live this out.

To be like the savior. If you're here today and you've, You don't know much about this agape love and, Lord Jesus, you've not, you've not, Experienced his love. Then just come to him this morning. Talk to us afterwards.

We would love to talk with you and help you in any way that we can. Ultimately it's God who draws you to Himself, and we can't do that. But Christ died for, Sinners just like you. Come to him today, call upon him, the savior who has endured so much trouble in order to bring you into a relationship with Himself, and all of that trouble, he doesn't consider it trouble at all.

That's how much he loves you. Lord, I just pray. That you would draw souls to yourself, that transactions of eternal significance would happen in this room, even right now. For those of us that are believers in you, Lord, we got so far to go and so much to learn regarding.

This love that we're seeing put before us. Help us to be like you, Jesus. To be like you, Help us to be diligent. And quick, swift to move into action and not slow, conscientious and not lazy.

May we not view what you call us to on behalf of each other as a, as a bother, as an irksome duty. Help us to live close to the flame of the gospel, Lord. That our hearts, our spirits might be boiling over with, with your love and your grace, and that we minister to others from this overflow. And help us, God, to passionately serve one another and to do so.

With a mindfulness that ultimately we're serving you. I think, Lord, as the care group ministry or the meetings are starting today, just this is just a time of a renewal of our commitment, Lord, help us to live this out in the context of The care group that you've made us a part of. To walk in Agape. And to live lives day by day that truly matter for eternity.

We thank you for this opportunity to give up our offerings to you also, Lord, receive these funds and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. And we ask all these things in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, in