The Local Church and Your Family

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to First Timothy, First Timothy. And I guess you can start off in chapter 5, even though we're gonna be looking at different passages of scripture. This'll be a different message, this morning as we're kinda gonna look thematically at the book of First Timothy and I'll explain to you why in just a moment. With this being Father's Day, I, I wanna.

Take some time to talk about two institutions that are very precious to God and also. Make some observations from 1 Timothy regarding the working relationship that God wants there to be between these two institutions, and the two institutions I'm talking about are the institution of the church or the local church and the institution of the family. This is a topic that is relevant to us here at Cornerstone because we are a local church and because we are a church that is comprised of what?

of families or households and because it is true that when the local church and its families work together.

They can accomplish more than you might imagine. In fact, I was reading this week about. draft horses, which are especially muscular horses that have been used. And pulling plows and pulling heavy loads for centuries now and I learned this week that a single draft horse can pull a load.

That weighs up to 8000 pounds. That being the case, how many pounds do you think two draft horses working together could pull? If one of them can pull 8000 pounds. We might think that 2 working together.

Of equal strength could pull 16,000 pounds, right? But it's actually 24,000 pounds that they can pull. Two draft horses working together can pull almost 3 times. The amount that one draft horse could, and I think we can say the same thing about the local church and the family.

When the local church and the family are in partnership and they're working together with each other, they can accomplish more. Then double what each of them working by themselves could accomplish, operating alone. And that's why the relationship between the local church. And the family is important and why it's good for us to think about.

How the local church and the family can partner together in a way that accomplishes much for God's kingdom. To get us started this morning, this will be a lengthy introduction. But to get us started in thinking about the partnership between the local church and the family, I wanna start off by giving you a Father's Day quiz. With 3 questions and I don't want you to answer these questions out loud.

I just want you to wrestle with them as I present these questions to you. And the first question is this, which is more important, the local church? Or the family. Which is more important, the local church or the family?

How would you answer that question? Maybe you found yourself struggling with that question at times or maybe someone has asked it of you, but how would you answer this question? What is more important, the church or the family? If someone were to ask me that question, I would respond by criticizing the question, which is one of the things I've learned to do as a pastor.

If someone asks you a question you don't know the answer to, criticize the question. But no, I would, I would respond by asking them a question, and I would ask, what is more important, the heart or the circulatory system? The lungs or the respiratory system. What's more important, the cornea?

Or the eye And my point in responding with these questions. Is to illustrate a problem with the question itself. Many of you have your whole household as a part of this local church, so for you, the question takes something that is a vital part of the whole. And it's asking you to determine what is more important, the part.

Or the whole. That's an impossible question to answer simply. Beyond that, even if no one in your household happens to be a believer in the church, it is still true that when you serve and you care for the members of your family and you evangelize them, you are carrying out the church's agenda. So in such a moment, you're not treating your family is more important than the church, you are honoring the priorities of the church.

So let's leave that first question for now and move on to a second question, which is this, which came first? The church or the family. Which came first, the church or the family? Well, we know that.

In the timeline of human history. The family came first, right? God created Adam and Eve as husband and wife, that's the institution of marriage. They then had children, and the church did not come into existence until Acts chapter 2, thousands of years later.

So in the timeline of human history, it appears that the institution of family came first. This is why. Many thinkers refer to the family as the first institution. And in a way that is true, but then we begin reading in Ephesians one and we learned that God chose us who are in the church to be in Christ when, before the foundation.

Of the world Long before Adam and Eve were even created, and we learned in Ephesians 5:31 through 33 that the institution of marriage was patterned after the relationship between Christ and the church. So evidently when God. was creating the earthly institution of marriage. He was staring at Christ and the church.

And then fashioning the institution of earthly marriage after that template that he was looking at. So this being the case, we would have to say that in the mind of God, at least, the church existed before God's creation of Adam and Eve. Enough so to influence the way God shaped the institution of marriage. So which came first, the family or the church?

You could give either answer and be partly correct. And you probably should give both answers to be completely correct. Either way, what is clear is that when God was creating the institution of marriage, the church was there in his mind. Even then, and influencing the way he fashioned the institution of marriage that is central to the family.

So here's a third question for you. And that is this, and the structural anatomy of the church and the family, which body part do they share in common? In the structural anatomy of the church and the family, which body part do they share in common? Many of you.

Know the answer to this question. We learned in scripture that the most important body part that the church and the family share is the head. Which is Christ. Speaking of the marriage relationship, which is central to the family, in 1 Corinthians 11:3, Paul says Christ is the head of every husband, and the husband is the head of the wife.

So this makes Christ the head of the family. But in Ephesians 5:23, Paul explicitly tells us, and I quote, that Christ is the head of the church. So the church and the family are distinct institutions that are joined together at the head. In Christ The point that I'm wanting to make by asking these questions and getting you to think about them is to.

Get us thinking about the fact that there is a deep and an ancient organic connection between the family and the church. That ought to be cherished by the church and by godly families. Christian churches and Christian households should celebrate this relationship between the family and the church, and then do the hard work of forging. A vital working relationship.

With one another in order to accomplish Christ's purposes on earth. And this is where First Timothy can help us in understanding what that vital working relationship can look like on a practical level. About, I think it was maybe 12 years ago now, we were doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy. And we came to 1 Timothy chapter 5, where Paul addresses the matter.

Of caring for widows in the church of Ephesus where Timothy was serving essentially as a pastor, and we observed in chapter 5 of 1 Timothy, Paul making use of a paradigm. That I want to put back in front of us today. Regarding the issue of caring for widows in the church, the problem in the Ephesian church was not that the church was neglecting its widows. But that they were providing care for too many.

Widows, which is an interesting problem. And Paul's message to Timothy in chapter 5 is basically this, Timothy, you need to reduce the number of widows that the church is providing for. And give some of this responsibility back to the families. That these widows are a part of.

What seems to have happened. In the Ephesian church at this time is that people in the Ephesian church saw that the church had a thriving widow's ministry that provided for the widows of the church financially. And the thought of these members was, hey, let's sign up grandma for this ministry, so that the church can provide for her financially and so they signed her up and had the church providing for her financially even though they themselves. We're perfectly capable.

providing for their widowed relative that was a part of their household, and the result was. That the Church of Ephesus was being burdened with caring for too many widows. And family members of these widows were being enabled in their negligence. To say it another way, the problem we see in 1 Timothy 5 is that the church had allowed itself to go too far and taking upon itself duties that should have been done by family members.

And as a result, two things were happening. First of all, the church was becoming excessively burdened. With providing care for so many widows, and secondly, family members were being cheated. Out of the opportunity to grow in godliness and practicing godliness toward their widowed relative, and in 1 Timothy 5 we see Paul applying a certain paradigm to this problem, a paradigm that is explosive in my mind.

And proves helpful to us in many areas beyond what Paul is trying to address here. And so with the time that we have left, what I wanna do. Is try to piece together this paradigm. And see how it can help us in other applications as the local church and its family seek to cultivate a vital partnership with one another.

So we'll look at 5 truths this morning from 1 Timothy that help us to understand the partnership between families and the local church. Truth number 1. The local church. Is one family.

A household of God. The local church is one family, a household of God. In fact, go to 1 Timothy 3:15. Where Paul tells Timothy.

His purpose for writing, and he says in the verse, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in. The household or the oikos, you're gonna hear the word oikos a lot this morning. I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the Oikos. Or household of God, which is the church of the living God.

Notice the language Paul uses here when speaking about the church. He calls the church the household or the oikos of God. The word oikos is the Greek word that is often used to speak of a family that lives under one roof. In fact, this word is translated as family later in 1 Timothy chapter 5.

So essentially, Paul is looking at the local church, which we here at Cornerstone are, and he's saying. That the local church is God's nuclear family. Gathered under one roof, as it were in a local particular expression of Christ's universal church. This being the case, we're not surprised as we read through First Timothy to see Paul speaking to Timothy.

For example, in 1 Timothy 5:1-2, and using the language of family as he instructs him. Beginning in 1 Timothy 5:1, Paul says to Timothy, do not sharply rebuke an older man, but exhort him, and literally the idea of this word is come alongside of him and speak to him. As a father. The younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters in all purity.

Paul is saying to Timothy, you are a family in the local church and I want you to behave accordingly as brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers to one another. This isn't pretend language. We are these things for one another, and Paul is wanting Timothy and us to act. On the basis of this being true.

This is the way that we need to think about each other. We look around us in the church and what do we see? We see brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers, and we even see grandmothers. In the church, we have some wonderful grandmothers.

Here in the cornerstone family. Not the least among whom is Grandma Jenny. who turns 80 tomorrow, I believe. There were like 100 people in the church yesterday celebrating this dear woman of God.

Who is a grandma to so many in this church family. In 1 Timothy 5:1-2, Paul tells Timothy to relate to his fellow believers in the church in this way as family. Because the church is a family, it is the household of God composed of family members operating under one roof, as it were. In the church, you look at us, you realize that we all come from varied backgrounds.

And ethnicities, but we are one in Christ. Amen. The color of our skin may be different, and there may be other differences between us, yet we are one family in Jesus. We are literally blood brothers and sisters of one another with a blood connection that runs deeper than the blood in our veins or ancestors' veins.

Our connection comes from the blood. That flowed through Jesus' veins, and that was shed at the cross when he died for our sins to give us salvation through him, and it is our salvation through Jesus and through his shed blood that unites us as a family. As members of Christ's Church, as members here of Cornerstone, we don't just come together and pretend to be family and play house as it were, for a little bit. No, we are real family, family members of one another whose connection to each other goes even deeper and will last longer than our connection to our earthly families, if they don't know Christ.

This much is clear from First Timothy that in Christ we are the household of God. And we are a family of one another, but this is not the only thing that is clear from First Timothy. You might look at this first truth and And think if the local church is the family of God. Does that mean that we should no longer see ourselves in relation to our earthly families?

This leads us to the second observation from 1 Timothy that can help us understand the partnership between. The local church and its families. 2, the local church should recognize the earthly households of which its members are a part. The local church should recognize the earthly households of which its members are a part.

What's striking to observe in First Timothy is that while Paul does speak of the church as the household of God, as one family, he repeatedly throughout this epistle speaks of the earthly households which comprise the church, and he freely speaks of church members in terms of their relationship to the members of their earthly households. As you read through this letter, you can easily take a pen and mark all the times that you see Paul speaking of people in terms of their relation to the members of their earthly family.

Or household, you would see Paul speaking of husbands. And of wives.

Of parents He speaks of children being managed by their parents, he speaks of widows whose husbands have died, and he speaks of the children and the grandchildren of these widows in need. Beyond all this, Paul makes several mentions of the earthly households which are represented in the Ephesian Church. Speaking about the job of elder, Paul says in chapter 3, verse 4, that the elder must rule his own Oikos well. His own household well.

Again in chapter 3 verse 5, he speaks of an elder ruling his own. Oikos or household well. In chapter 3 verse 12, he speaks of deacons who manage their own households. In chapter 5 verse 4, Paul speaks of duties that children have toward their own family.

The oikos. In chapter 5 verse 8, Paul speaks of a man with duties toward his household. And in chapter 5 verse 14, Paul speaks of widows who once managed their households before they were widowed. So which is it?

Does the church comprise one household, one family of God, or is it comprised of many distinct earthly households? Both are true. As we see in First Timothy. And regarding these earthly households in the local church.

There is something that the church must do. And this brings us to the 3rd truth from 1 Timothy that can help us understand the partnership between the local church and its families. Number 3. The local church should have clear expectations of each member.

Of its earthly households, the local church should have clear expectations of each member of its earthly households that are represented in the church, and we see this truth manifested throughout First Timothy. We observed that Paul expects men. To be Husbands of one wife or the idea is one woman men toward their wives in chapter 3 verse 2. He expects fathers to manage their household well in chapter 3 verse 4, he expects fathers to keep their children under control with all dignity.

In chapter 3 verse 4, Paul also expects married women to be one mankind of women, chapter 5 verse 9. He expects children to allow themselves to be governed by their parents in chapter 3, verse 4. In 1 Timothy 5:14, we observe that Paul wants women as a general rule. 2, and I quote, get married, bear children, and be rulers of their households.

God calls some to singleness in order to serve him. As a general rule, Paul communicates this, for women to get married, bear children, and be rulers of their households. In 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 4, and we're gonna see this more in the coming moments, Paul expects children to provide care for their parents and grandparents when they're no longer able to provide for themselves. All of these are expectations that Paul is communicating as an inspired writer of scripture that family members have towards the members of their earthly family.

Regarding this last one of providing care for their parents or grandparents who can no longer provide for themselves, notice how Paul makes this particular expectation clear in 1 Timothy 5:3-4, where he speaks to Timothy and he says, Honor widows. Who are widows indeed. In other words, he's telling Timothy that the church should indeed take on the responsibility of providing for widows in the church, who are truly widows who have no family members to care for them or provide for them.

But then notice what he says in verse 4.

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, and we would presume children or grandchildren in the church, let them, the children or the grandchildren, first learn to practice piety. In regard to their own family, their own oikos, and to make some return to their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God. In the specific context that we're looking at here in chapter 5, Paul is making it clear that he expects children and grandchildren to provide for their parents.

And grandparents.

He describes doing this as piety. This could be translated religion or godliness. He also calls it making some return to their parents. Paul wants the members of the Ephesian Church to think about all that their parents did for them when they were growing up, and to view caring for their aging parents as making a return to their parents for all that they gave them over the years.

As many of us know from Experience, it's one of the poignant. Ironies of life and a broken world that when we were young as kids and helpless, our parents cared for us. They provided for us and they brought us to strength and maturity, but then years go by and they age and become weakened and in their waning days they often become themselves childlike. And helpless Making it now our turn.

To care for them. In 1 Timothy 5:4, Paul describes ministering to one's parents in this way as acceptable in the sight of God, and this word acceptable is a very weak translation of a wonderful word that means pleasing. This is pleasing in the sight of God. And some of you in this church have modeled the beauty of this so wonderfully as you have cared for your parents, and their waning and weakening days.

When God looks upon a man or a woman. Caring for or working to provide for an elderly loved one. God says this is godliness. This is piety, and this pleases me.

And Paul is telling Timothy as a pastor to teach these expectations to the members of the church. And Paul goes even further than this. Notice what he says about the duties of children and grandchildren in a situation like this. He says in verse 4, let them first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family.

I encourage you to circle the word first or mark it in some way. And ask yourself why does Paul use the word first in this statement? His challenge would have been sufficient enough without the word first. Why does he use the word first in this statement?

Well, clearly he means first as in highest priority. In other words, providing for one's parents and grandparents should be viewed among Christians as being among the highest priorities in your life, a priority that takes precedence over other things that you might wish to do. Or taking precedence over other people that you might wish to serve. Paul uses the word first.

Additionally, here to mean that a Christian child or grandchild in the church should provide for their parents or grandparents first before they choose other forms of Christian service. In the church that they might wish to be involved in. But in using the word first, Paul is primarily here saying that a child or a grandchild should provide for their parents first before the church steps in. And does it for them.

When the church encounters a widow in need, they, as a church are first to go to the children and the grandchildren and urge them to fulfill their calling to care for their widowed parent before taking on that responsibility as a church. In other words, the church. Is to have expectations of these family members and to make these children and grandchildren the first line of provision. In providing care for their widowed parent.

Look how strongly the apostle. Believes this as an inspired writer of scripture in 1 Timothy 5:8, Paul says, but if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own oikos or household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. We often take this passage to be speaking of a man. Who might be guilty of failing to provide for his wife and children, and in principle, this passage very much.

Would apply to that, but in this context, Paul is primarily speaking of a person who is failing to provide for his parents. Or grandparents when he's perfectly capable of doing that. In this verse, Paul is saying, a man who won't provide for his parents or grandparents, or anyone in his family for that matter, is denying the faith. And is behaving even worse than Many nonbelievers behave.

So all in all, we've seen the negative and the positive when it comes to caring for the widow and one's family. Negatively speaking, when a Christian in the church does not provide for their widowed grandmother or mother, Paul says they've denied the faith and are acting worse than an infidel. On the other hand, when a person provides for their widowed parent. They are practicing piety.

And they are pleasing in the sight of God. And there's actually another positive outcome. To their ministry to their widowed relative, and this leads us to the 4th truth. That helps us to understand the partnership between families and the local church.

Number 4, church members should serve their households with the goal of benefiting the church in doing so. Church members should serve their households with the goal of benefiting the church in doing so. In 1 Timothy 5:16. Paul says if any woman, and by the way, some manuscripts.

And even English translations like the King James and New King James say if any woman or man who is a believer has dependent widows, she or some manuscripts say they must assist them and the church must not be burdened so that it, the church may assist those who are widows indeed. Paul's point here is this. If you have a dependent widow in your family, and you have the wherewithal to provide for them. Then two things are essential, and we know what those two things are, because we see the word must being used here in the text.

You must assist them, Paul says, and the church must not be burdened. These two things are essential, and they go together. If a church member has the means to provide for their elderly relative, then they must assist the relative, not just for the relative's sake, but also for the sake of the church. So that the church would not be burdened.

In other words, The Christians should work to meet the need of their elderly relative with an eye toward benefiting the church. In doing so Because when a family member cares for his elderly parent or grandparent. They're unburdening the church and they're freeing up the church to use their resources to meet the needs of the widows who do not have a family that can provide for them. Now In this passage, Paul is.

Applying this line of thought to caring for widows in. One's household, but it's. This line of thought that intrigues me. That he uses here because it represents, I think, a paradigm.

That I know Paul would happily apply. To other areas in our families, regardless of the family member that may be in need, we each should serve one another in our households, in our families. With the goal of blessing the church in doing so. Which means that we serve one another in the home as a way of serving the church.

So the question is not, do I serve my family or do I serve my church. Paul would say, when you serve your family, you are serving the church. If you're a mom with young children in the home, don't, don't think to yourself, man, I would love to serve. The church right now, but I can't because I have to teach my children and take care of them.

The truth is you are serving the church, and you are blessing the church by ministering to your kids and by taking care of your family. And men, you are serving the church by loving your wife. And by shepherding your children, and by endeavoring to lead your family in the things of God, you serve your church well, when you invest yourself in shepherding that part of the church. That resides within the walls of your home.

Or that are related to you as a part of your family. And you should never underestimate the blessing that you are to the church when you do this. All Christian moms and dads in the church should train up their children in the nurture and the discipline of the Lord, so that one day. Their children might find their place in a local church and be a blessing in that church and serve together with that church in carrying out Christ's mission as his body, right?

As Joel Beey says, listen to this, godly parents want to glorify God and serve His church. They want to give the church spiritually stalwart sons and daughters. Pray that your sons and daughters may be pillars in the church. Blessed are the parents who can one day see among the crowd of worshippers their own sons and daughters.

The upshot of this paradigm for all of us. Is this Serve Your family members well as a way of not only blessing your family members. But also as a way of blessing the church. And this would include you children being obedient to your parents and allowing yourself to be governed by them and seeking to be a blessing to your siblings and a blessing to your parents.

Doing this not only makes you a blessing to your family, it makes you a blessing to the church. That's part of your ministry to the church, to obey your parents, allow yourself to be managed by them, and to be a blessing to your parents and siblings, and to walk in love toward them. That's Your fundamental ministry to the church. There's one final truth I want us to look at this morning from First Timothy, which shows us the working partnership that should prevail between the local church and its families.

Number 5, earthly households should be the proving ground. For churchwide ministry. Earthly households should be the proving ground for churchwide ministry, and we see this modeled in First Timothy, where it is clear that. Earthly households.

Are the places where the church's leaders are forged and found. Where does the church get its elders, you may ask. In 1 Timothy 3, beginning in verse 2, Paul says, an overseer must, amongst other things, be the husband of one wife. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity.

But if a man, Paul says, does not know how to manage his own household, how will he be able to take care of the Church of God? Where does the church get her deacons? Regarding deacons. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:12.

Deacons must be the husbands of one wife and good managers of their children and their own what households. So where does the church find? Its leaders. Where does the church find its elders and deacons?

Or as Vadi Baum says, where is the church to look for her leaders? Is it in the seminary? Is it in other churches or ministries of similar size that have been led through a growth phase and building campaign by a gifted leader? Is it on websites that collect resumes?

No, he says. The church is instructed to look for its leaders. In the family Churches nowadays, he says, tend to look at resumes and never examine the home. In the New Testament church, a man's home was his resume.

And that's perfectly consistent with what we find. Being taught in First Timothy. It is God's plan that earthly households represented in the church are the proving ground where the church's leaders are forged and where they are to be found. Faithfulness and leadership and service to one's family is one of the key qualifications that qualifies a man for leadership in the church.

And if a man shows himself faithful in leading his own household. Then that's a pretty good indication. That he will do a good job of serving. His church in broader ministry.

And this is part of the reason that godly households. Are vital to the health of the church. Because these households are the place where the church finds its leaders. Our goal this morning has been to try to just do a quick.

Look at. Certain passages and themes that we see in First Timothy, but I trust we've seen enough to show the working relationship that should prevail between the local church and its families. When we all think with the paradigm that Paul gives us in First Timothy, we end up. With a beautiful situation in which no one in the church is worrying about which is more important, the church or the family.

Instead, everyone is fulfilling their duties in their families in order to contribute to the well-being of the church in doing so. And men are stepping into the task of leading their families in this vision. And in the end, the church and its families thrive under this partnership between the church and its families, as these families are being led by men functioning as pastors of their homes. In fact, I want you to listen to some words from Richard Baxter speaking a few 100 years ago.

To pastors of churches. he was talking about what they need to do as pastors in order to have a successful ministry in their church. For them to thrive as a church in godliness, and Richard Baxter wrote these words. Listen to what he says.

We pastors must have a special eye upon families. To see that the duties of each relation or relative are performed. The welfare of the church depends much on family government and duty. If we pastors of churches allow the neglect of this, we shall undo everything.

What we are likely. Or what are we likely to accomplish ourselves toward the reforming of a congregation if all the work be cast upon us pastors alone. And masters of families. Neglect that necessary duty of their own by which they are bound to help us.

If any good be begun. By the pastoral ministry in any soul. A careless, prayerless, worldly family is likely to stifle it. Or very much hinder it.

Whereas if you could just get the rulers of families to do their duty, to take up the work where you left it as pastors and help it on, what abundance of good might be done, I beseech you, therefore. If you pastors desire the reformation and welfare of your people, do all that you can to promote family religion. Unquote You see the partnership There between the local church and the family that Baxter envisions. You see how important the heads of the households are to such an undertaking.

It is for this reason that I can say that if you are a man. Who happens to be the head of a household. Welcome to the pastorate. As a head of the household, you have an official ministry position.

In the church, and that is to lead your family in the things of God. And we need you to lean into that and to embrace your calling. As a man to be the pastor of your family. The most important part of Cornerstones women's ministry is your ministry as a man to your wife in the home.

The most important part of our church's youth ministry is your ministry as a dad to the youth in your family. The most important part of our church's children's ministry. Is your ministry as a dad to your children. And I would put moms together with that serving with their husbands.

We want you as a man to be encouraged in your role as a leader. We want to do our part as a church and helping you. To be the leader that God has called you to be, and we also, we wanna help you to know how to experience the grace of Jesus Christ when you fall short, so that through his grace you can be encouraged to Grow into the man that God wants you to be, and we would love to continue this conversation with you that I have initiated in this message this morning. On Tuesday mornings from 6 in the morning to about 7:15, we have a Zoom man forum meeting that all of you men, married and single, are invited to attend in order to continue discussing these things that we're talking about this morning.

Normally there's about 20 to 25 men in our church who join us for our man forum meetings on Zoom, and there's a lot of wisdom represented amongst those men that I know that you will find benefit from. And be able to get your questions answered and receive encouragement from as well. These are men. In the cornerstone family who are repenting daily of their failures, they're looking to Christ for his daily grace, and they're seeking to grow in being the leaders of their families that God has called them to be.

So if you're free, like this Tuesday at 6. In the morning, I, I invite you to join us for this Zoom meeting. And if you need to get the link to the Zoom meeting, just go by the men's ministry table. after our service and give them your name and your email, and we'll make sure you get that link so that you can join us for our meeting this Tuesday.

But let us serve you, let us help you in any way that we can, and let us be helped by you as we strive for a successful partnership between this local church and the households. That are represented here. Because together, I think we can do triple. What any of us could do just operating alone by ourselves and I'm looking forward to.

Us being able to do that and excelling still more as we labor together in this way. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to guide us and to help us in achieving this goal. Lord, thank you for. Your holy word and for the wisdom that we find in.

In your word, just the way that Paul approaches. The particular issues that he confronts in this letter are very. Instructive for us. And I pray, Lord, that you would give wisdom to us as a church and as family members and.

Being able to have a a partnership that. Allows us to just. Explode with With potential. Of all the things that could be accomplished as we labor.

Together, the church, together with its households. And if there's any man or woman, or child here feeling guilt of failing in any of the ways that we have looked at, may they know that, Lord Jesus, you died and you shed your blood for, for sins that we commit. All of them, and may they come running to you and bathe in your atoning blood and in your mercy, and know that you are a savior who delights in those who cling to your mercy. And may they know that there is forgiveness with you, and may the experience of that forgiveness give them the freedom to weep freely, to mourn their sins with courage.

And may your grace so melt their hearts that they just are madly in love with you. And desirous of. Pleasing you in any way they can. But we confess to you, Lord, our weakness, our ignorance.

Our failures But we look to you, our great savior. And it is to you that we cry out. And it is from you that we receive great hope for ourselves. And for those that you have called us.

To lead And to influence. For Christ We ask all of these things, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said. Amen.