Church Is Family and Mission

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

In seminary, I trained in a lot of different disciplines. So I trained in theology, I trained in preaching, I trained in spiritual formation, I trained in church history, I trained in leadership. I went to class, I listened to professors, I read the classics, or at least I said I did on a quiz. The training that I had was great. The training that I had was great, but it was not real life experience. It's not the same. There's no class that I could have taken on my first funeral. There's no class I could have taken on how to do a hospital visit the right way, on how to handle conflict resolution in my own church. There's just no way that anybody could actually teach a class where I would absorb that information just by reading it and then know exactly what to do in the moment. Training is great, but it's not real life experience. Real life experience confronts you,

it presses you for answers, it makes you search. And it's the reason that students, college students, when they graduate have internships. It's the reason that doctors have residencies. Because just the training in the classroom is not the same as real life experience. We've been looking at this switch that happens between Romans one through 11 and Romans 12 through 16. This is our last week on that switch. And we've been calling this right to life. And part of that is because in Romans 12, one and two, there's this big header where it says like, hey, be a living sacrifice, right, right to life. How are we made right to live our lives? How are we made to live as a living sacrifice? And what we've seen throughout the past five weeks, we've seen these different contexts that comes out of it. So we've seen it in the midst of church life. We've seen it in the midst of citizenship,

in the midst of our specific convictions, like we looked at a few weeks ago. And similar to training, Romans 12 through 15 is giving us these contexts, right? It's saying, hey, here's how you handle this situation when it happens. Here's what it looks like to be a living sacrifice in the midst of church life, in the midst of being a citizen. It's training and it's good, it's training. But this week, this week, Paul is closing his letter to the Romans, and this week we move from training to real life experience. We read about real names. We read about real situations in Romans chapter 16, as we read it, it's almost like we get to eavesdrop into what's going on in this Roman church. We get to listen to what they're saying, and if we really study it, if we really look at it like I want to this morning, what we're gonna find is something that stands out, that everybody involved in this,

all the names that are listed, all the situations, everything that's going on, everybody involved in this, they believe that the local church, local church life is absolutely essential. They believe that. They believe that the local church is absolutely essential, and it's all over Romans chapter 16, and really, it's all over Romans in the previous four chapters. Let me just show you just real quick. Romans 12, six says that there's different gifts and that we must use them. Where? Context of a local church.

You are members, verse five, you are members of one another. Romans 13 says to walk in love. How? How do we walk in love? We resist quarrels and jealousy within the church body. The local church life is assumed here. Romans 14 says pursue peace and mutual upbuilding. What does it mean to be mutual? Mutual meaning with each other in the local church. Romans 15, the prayer is for the church body to live in harmony. When? When is it asking the church to live in harmony? Only on Sunday mornings? Only in life group? No.

Not only on church sanctioned functions, but in life. The context for Romans 12, 13, 14, 15, and now 16 is this local church and their basic assumption is that this is essential. In their conversations, church is an organism that very few of us would recognize today. Today there are many that view church as optional at best and a detriment at worst. I've had many conversations locally, like with Burlesonites, and especially if they've been burned by a church, they really are kind of against organized religion, right? In any capacity. And so when they're reading Romans 16, it's with this stubborn skepticism toward local church life. But the basic assumption here in Romans 16 is that it's essential. That without it, they would have a really tough time obeying Jesus. Without it, they would be kind of lost. They wouldn't have lasted very long. And so today, I wanna invite you.

I wanna invite you to eavesdrop with me on the conversation in Romans 16, where there's real people, where there's real situations. And I wanna challenge you, I wanted to encourage us this morning toward church life. I wanted to bless your soul. I wanted to encourage you toward church life that would fill you with hope, it would spark your imagination. So let's get into it. Let's get into Romans 16. If you look at Romans 16, you immediately, you immediately are seeing veteran leaders, right? So in Romans 16, verses one and two,

it starts out, it says, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. So right out of the gate, you're seeing this decorated leader, Phoebe is a decorated leader. And there's a lot of actual debate about Phoebe. I don't really wanna get into all of it, but it is enough to say the debate is a little bit hotter because Phoebe's a woman, right? That's why that debate is there. But everybody on both sides of the debate, as you read conservative and liberal scholars and everybody, you try to kind of see what's there, none of them disagree that she's a titled leader at some capacity. She has a leadership kind of position, okay? That word servant of the church at Cenchreae, that word servant, it depends on your translation,

if you have New Living or if you have NIV, that says deacon of the church at Cenchreae. And if you are in ESV like we are this morning or KJV, it'll say servant. And it seems like it's deacon, honestly, because she's provided, look what she's doing, she's providing logistically for churches. She is a patron of many. She is probably of high social standing. She's probably the one who's delivering this letter. That's why Romans 16 kind of starts with her that this whole move to begin to greet people starts with her.

She financially provided for, she's a patron of many and of Paul. So she's probably putting Paul up when he's passing through at Cenchreae. She's probably paying Christians who are going out on missions. She's probably paying for that, right? She's a patron of many. And so you see Phoebe, decorated leader. She's not the only decorated leader you see. You also see in the next couple of verses, it says greet Prisca and Aquila, that's probably husband-wife combo, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well, greet also the church in their house. So you have Prisca and Aquila that are leading now, they're veteran leaders, they've been at it a while, they're leading at great personal cost. They're risking their own life, their business, their livelihood, all of that.

I don't know if they have children, but I'm sure they're risking the safety of their children if they have any. And there is a, there is a, kind of a veteran, like, hey, look at these people. Look at Phoebe, look at Prisca, look at Aquila. They are working. Acknowledge them. He says I commend to you, Phoebe. I want you to greet Prisca and Aquila. And they also have a church meeting in their home, Prisca and Aquila do. They have a church meeting in their home. You also see that in verse 14, where it says greet asynchronous, we'll just call them ace, because these names are long, Flea John Hermes, Patrobas Hermes, and the brothers who are with them, that is probably a house church. Most scholars would say that that is true. It's also in the next verse, verse 15, says greet Philologus, we'll call him Phil. Greet Phil, Julia, Nereus, and his sister Olympus, and all the saints who are with them.

So you have veteran leaders that are leading multiple grassroots movement at this church in Rome. So the church of Rome is actually a collection of house churches. There's three there that we saw. There's probably five more if you look at verse 10 and 11 with Aristobulus and Narcissus. So what you have, what you have, as Paul is greeting this church, what's he doing? He's listing off the veteran leaders, and he's saying look, greet these people, welcome these people, but what we get to understand is that this thing, this church in Rome, is a collection of smaller churches that are pushing forward on the same thing. So you have leaders kind of in this grassroots movement. Just on top of that, you have these other workers that are named, for example in verse six, it says greet Mary who's worked hard for you. Verse 12, greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa, greet the beloved Persis

who's worked hard in the Lord. So all these people, Mary, Tryphosa, Tryphaena, Persis, they're all working hard at the end, in verse, not the end, but kind of the middle. Verse 21 and 23, you have Paul's band of eight men all working together, and that's Tim, Luke, Jason, Sopa, Tarsh, Guy, Eric, and Q. We're going for short names here. It's eight guys, but here's what I don't want to lose, I don't want you to lose, these are real people. These are people like Phoebe, like Priscilla, like Aquila, like Persis, all these people are working hard, they are laying their life down, they are risking their lives to work on something.

What is he thanking them for? What are they doing? Well, it doesn't actually say, not in Romans 16. But it is worth asking, what is their assumption? They must all know what they're being thanked for. Everybody actually must understand, like why, why are you commending Phoebe to us? Well, that would make sense to them in their situation, because they know, they know what the personal sacrifice is for, they know what the grassroots movement is about. We get a little bit of this, I mean, just a little bit of this in verses 17 through 20, it kind of tells us the substance of their sacrifice. Look at verse 17, Romans 16 verse 17. It says, I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught, avoid them, okay, so what are the leaders doing? What are these workers doing? What are they all efforting for?

They are helping protect the doctrine that they've been taught. They're helping to keep that church pure in their pursuit of Jesus Christ and nothing else. Look at verses 18 and 19, it says, for such persons do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive, for your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. What are they efforting for? They're efforting for this church to recognize what's good and to pursue that, to recognize what's evil and avoid that, to understand that there is opposition and to cooperate with that or to resist that. Look at verse 20, it says, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. So these leaders, these workers,

this is Phoebe and Prisca and Aquila and Persis and Mary and Trifania and Tryphosa, all these people, Timothy, they are showing, they are demonstrating, modeling how to cooperate with the God who is crushing Satan under their feet. These leaders are sacrificing for these people to obey Jesus. They want the church in Rome to share the gospel of Jesus. They want the church in Rome to serve people in Jesus' name, they want the church in Rome, all these house churches, everybody, they want them, they want them to walk in the truth of Jesus. And this is the dream that they all share for this church. They wanna see the kingdom of God realized in the lives of all these people, all these people that aren't named here, the church in Rome.

All these workers are moving toward that and this was all their general assumption. Look, don't read Romans 16 and miss this. This was their general assumption. Everybody is sacrificing for the only mission that matters. They're laying their lives down for not just a cool Sunday morning gathering, they're laying their lives down for each other. You have veteran leaders showing the way. You have the working in grassroots community, they're sacrificing collectively and this, all, that all that I just described was what they call church. That's church. You're asking what church is, they're living it. Romans 16, this is church as they knew it, this is church as they hoped it would be and this is our encouragement. That is what Jesus is building in us. That is what, is church. That's what Jesus is building in us. Jesus openly declared to Peter, whenever Peter confessed that he was the Christ,

he was the Messiah, Jesus openly declared, he's like, yeah, look, hey, I'm gonna build my church on that confession. I'm gonna build my church, how's he gonna do it? How is Jesus gonna build his church? How's that gonna happen? It's happening, it's gonna happen as he makes us into those veteran leaders, as we become Aquila and Phoebe and Prisca and Persis and Mary and we become those people who invest in other people's spiritual journeys. We become people who make room in their hearts and their lives and their homes to meet and teach. We're the ones who organize ministry to meet the needs of the community.

Look, I hope that you are encouraged, I truly do. I hope that you're encouraged whenever you understand that our church is organizing our needs, our resources, we're pooling our resources together to just send it to an apartment complex to bless them, to send it to families in need through Clinkscale Elementary to bless them. I hope you understand that this is part of our identity as a church, that we give because we've been given to, we serve because we have been served and that Jesus is building that in us, he's making us into those veteran leaders, he's planning for us to work hard together, for us to visit each other whenever we're sick or when we're lonely, to counsel one another, to feed people, to listen to people, to spur one another on to love and good deeds like it says in Hebrews 10.

Jesus is building all of this in us and to embrace this mission, to embrace this like what's going on, you have to believe it. Nothing is more defeating, nothing is more defeating than to believe that the mission that you're engaged in is not working, nothing. We must trust that Jesus is building this in us, one life at a time. We're gonna look at how you can tell in a minute, but there's one more encouragement that we hear as we eavesdrop in Romans chapter 16. You see it a few different places in 16 and I'm just gonna, it'd be more of a quick hit, I don't wanna look at all those different verses but you can see it. There are many people that are called beloved. Verse five is Epineas, then you have Ampliadis in eight, Stachas in nine and Persis again in 12. There is a great deal of affection between these people, a great deal of affection. Rufus' mother, I think this is a great example,

Rufus' mother in Romans 16, 13 says, says greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord and also his mother, look at this, who has been a mother to me as well. Look, that's heartfelt, man. That's Hallmark stuff right there, that's good, okay? It is, that is deeply felt familial affection between people who are related, deeply familial terms. These are people who've been in the trenches with one another, verse 16 says to greet one another with a holy kiss. That sounds very weird to us, okay? We're not starting that ministry, okay? We're not doing that but to them it was deeply familial.

If they're gonna kiss one another, that was family, that was what family did and he's saying, look, you greet one another, you act like family. The family nature also comes out in these repeated commands to welcome or greet the church family. Welcome was a big deal, right? In fact, welcome or greet is written, and that's important, it's written 22 times in Romans chapter 16 alone. And it picks up on the theme that is developed in Romans 14 and Romans 15, right? But it's helpful to understand, in Greek, as you're writing a Greek manuscript, it's not like you had loose leaf paper just hanging out. It's not like you had ink for days like we do. I mean, ink and paper is all over my house and I can get it in almost every room that we have. You probably have it all over too. In the first century, if you're writing a letter to somebody, you don't have a ton of paper,

you don't have a ton of ink. And so in Greek, actually, when you study the Greek of the Bible, there's many, many times when a long word is used again. So they kind of use the verb and then they'll say, you know, like welcome, you know, this person, this person, this person. And then in the next line, it won't say welcome again, it'll say and this person, this person, this person. And there was kind of ways for them to reference it without having to write the whole word out because it's a long word. It's like a 12-letter word, welcome. But they write it every time. They write it 22 times in the Greek, not just 22 times in the English translation. The reason that's significant

is because words were expensive, and by writing it a lot, he's emphasizing it. And you can almost see, like, so Paul actually did not physically pen the letter to the Romans. He had somebody who wrote it for him as he kind of said it aloud, and that's kind of a whole thing. But what you need to understand is that, is as Paul is telling this guy how to write this letter, he's saying, no, no, no, no, you write greet again. Write it again, write welcome again. Do it again. You want me to write it again? Write it again. Because it's a big deal. I'm driving this thing home. It's the end of the letter, and they need to know that they should be welcoming one another, they should be greeting one another. It also, this is very specific, but he says, when he says welcome,

if you would translate it for Burleson, it's not, it doesn't just say greet Rufus, or greet, and it doesn't say I greet so and so. If you look at other places in the New Testament, Colossians four, Paul says I greet so and so. I greet so and so. I greet so and so. So Paul is greeting them through the letter. That's not what he does here. Specifically what he does in Romans 16. He says y'all greet Rufus. Well, that's a little odd because Rufus is part of the y'all. Rufus is there. Rufus' mother is there. What's he saying? He's saying look, you're all there together and you need to welcome one another. You need to greet one another. And look, this idea of greeting, it carries a familial tone and it's really, it's a lot more, if somebody tells me to greet somebody, that means in my mind I'm gonna go tell them hi. Say the word hello to them. Hey, Christie says hi to you, Dan.

Okay, done. I've now greeted Dan, okay, because my wife asked me to greet Dan for her. Fantastic. This is more than that. This ain't that, okay. This carries the familial tone that we see, right? This word aspadsamai in Greek, it means to welcome them into your life, welcome them into your home for a meal, welcome them, ask about their life, show them honor. Help them understand that you love them. Concern yourself with their concerns. Pray for them. Desire their spiritual growth.

Again, this was church to them. This is what it meant to be a part of a church. It was family. This is our encouragement right here. Our encouragement in all this is that Jesus is building a family for us. Jesus is not only building a church in us with the mission that we kind of march for, we're all going the same direction. We got leaders, we got grassroots movements, we're taking the hill for the Lord, but Jesus is also, he's building that, but he's also building a family for us and it's in the same place. When Jesus began his ministry, what did he assemble? A family. Yeah, it's 12 disciples and it's 120 other disciples, but they spent three years together, living together as family. When the Holy Spirit came, what began to grow? The New Testament church, family.

Anytime, anytime you have people coming together in the name of Jesus, and you've experienced this, anytime you have people come together in the name of Jesus to do the work of Jesus by the Holy Spirit, you begin to develop family. I can still name, still, I can still name every family involved in my first youth minister position, way back in October of 98. I had just met Christie two months before that. He was a very different person than I am now, but I remember all those people and I could rattle off their names. It wouldn't mean anything to you, but it would mean everything to me. Those are the families that welcomed me when I was stupid, right? When I said things I didn't need to say, or I made some joke and their kids come home and tell them about it and they're like, why is the assistant youth minister making those jokes?

They bore with me, they cared for me. Many of them were like a mother to me, like Rufus, like Rufus' mother was to Paul. Many of them were a father to me. I mean, I didn't grow up really hanging out with my dad a ton and my stepdad kind of came a little late and so men that were able to invest in me as I was serving them, it's a deeply familial thing going on.

Many people actually that came to South Burleson with us were people that we all went on a mission trip together to London. So Kimmy went with me on that, Daniel Oster, Dan and Amy Hay, Lindsey Bro. And they all came with us here. It's because we shared something, right? We shared family, we shared that sentiment, that bond. It wasn't just that we knew each other from a mission trip, it's that we had grown because together we were doing risky things for the Lord and that was good and it bound us together in a good way. I'm sure that's happened to you. I'm sure you've gone on a mission trip. I mean, shoot, one time I was at a Christian concert in a mosh pit, okay? And we are throwing it down, it's awesome. The next day I saw, I was in the line of McDonald's, we were trying to get out of town, I was in the line of McDonald's, I saw the guy next to me and he was in the mosh pit

with me and I looked at him and I was like, yeah, and he was like, man, that was great. We had a little bond there, okay? It was one night in a mosh pit so I don't wanna make too much of it but I just wanna say that when you do risky Christian work together, when you do that, when you put yourself out there vulnerable with other people, you're going to be family. You're gonna be, you better like them because you're gonna be family with them, okay?

That's what the Lord is calling us to do together, risky stuff together. Somebody else being risky out there. Just saying, sirens ain't for nothing. For us to be risky together, that's gonna be distracting, okay? For us to be risky together, when we do that, when we engage in risky things, when we share our faith, okay, that's super risky, it just feels like crazy. When you do that with somebody else, you're bound to them. When you're leading a Bible study for the first time, the people that you do that with, you're bound with them. When you preach for the first time, that's a risky thing. When you open your home up for a small group or something for the first time, that's risky, it's scary. And when you do that, the Lord builds family. This work is good but the family is just as good. The opposite of this, and I just wanna speak to this very quickly, the opposite of this is when I hear

that people are absolutely roasted by a church. And look, I don't wanna slam all churches right in this moment, right? I don't, there's two sides to every story, okay? So I get it. But I've witnessed it enough to know personally and secondhand, I've heard of it enough to know that it happens. And when you walk into a place expecting family and you get condemnation or you get interrogated or you get shamed or you get guilted or cajoled or coerced or that ain't family and it hurts.

And that pain tempts us to mistrust that Jesus is building a family for us. It makes it hard to believe that. It makes us wanna pull back. It makes us not wanna be vulnerable. It makes us not want to engage because we are trying to protect ourselves. And so we need to end with this question. It's a long question. The question is how do I know, how do I know if I'm trusting Jesus to build a church in me and build a church for me? How do I know that? I wanna give you a few diagnostic questions. And look, these aren't board certified or anything. And there's just a way to get you to think about it differently, okay?

So to see if you believe that Jesus is building the church in you, if you are grasping the mission, okay? Do I believe that Jesus is building a church in us? Okay, here's your first question. And this is just one to 10. You can score yourself, that's fine. But if you like love personality tests, this might be just up your alley, I don't know. But again, this isn't like perfect. This is just a way to think about it. One to 10, one to 10. How do you think about investing in a church? So I gotta tell you what one is. One would be trying to get the most out of it with the least investment possible. Are you just jumping in the back and leaving first?

Are you just trying to give as little as possible while still getting a little bit of something? That's one. 10 would be you are finding ways to invest even more, even sacrificially to the Lord Jesus to his cause. How invested are you in church? What's your, how do you think about investing? Second question, one to 10. Where do you see yourself, especially in 10 years?

Okay. Number one, oh sorry, one is obviously, one's low, 10's high, okay. One is that you have no vision whatsoever and that you just hope that you're still hanging on. You're just kind of rolling hard, but you don't have any aspirations. 10 would be man, you are fully embracing Jesus's call on your life and you are trying to figure, you're even trying to figure out what's next. You're just out there, you're just grasping. You're pushing ahead, you're going until you get a no. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Last question. What's your joy level? How much do you enjoy this? Right, if you're one, you are burned out, you are jaded. If you're a one on that, you can't even stand to see another Christian happy, okay. You see another Christian happy and you're just sour. You're just, oh, just wait. Just wait until it all comes crashing down. If that's you, I'm just saying your joy's probably

not where it needs to be, right. That's not a super great place to be. 10, man, you are feasting on that joy. You are getting up, and I'm not saying everyday sunshine and rainbows, but man, you are, you have a hold of that Holy Spirit joy and you are feasting on it. You're in between those, right. You're in between one and 10. Hopefully you're not a one. Hopefully you're in between them. And this is not, look, this is not to shame you, okay. If you're scoring low on these, it's not the idea, it's not shame, it's to encourage you. To encourage you that Jesus is building a church in us together. Believe that, receive joy from that, make room for that.

We are on a mission together. Second, second big, kind of big thing, last big thing. To see if you believe that Jesus is building a church for you, right. If he's putting together a spiritual family for you, okay. You got a couple of questions. How many close personal friends are part of your church? One would be none at all. And just for the sake of this question, let's just say spouses don't count, okay. None at all is one, and 10 would be a good amount of close personal friends, okay. So it helps to be friends with the people that you're laboring with. If you don't have any close personal friends, I'm not sure, there's something that is missing in that, okay, if you are coming here and attending a church service but you don't even know last names of anybody, no one was in your first names because we're all wearing name tags, okay. Then I would challenge you, I would just say,

hey listen, it's supposed to be more than that. Jesus is building more than that for you. So take hold of it, right. Second question, what is your fear level of getting hurt? How afraid are you of getting hurt? How nervous are you? One, it's a foregone conclusion. You're going to hate these people in a year, okay. Look, we all know in 12 months time you're gonna do something to disappoint me and then I'm gonna resent you and then we're not gonna be friends. Okay, that's one.

Look, if that's you, let's talk after. I'm gonna be at the couches and chairs. You probably need a conversation, just saying that's pretty jaded. Number 10 would be, look, I'm a flawed person loving flawed people but God is good. And can I tell you that is such a freeing thing to know that I'm, look, I'm flawed, man, I am. I mean, I try, I work hard, I try to just feast on the Holy Spirit joy, I try to be disciplined, I try to watch what I say, I try to love people, yes, all those things. I'm deeply flawed. You are deeply, maybe not as flawed as me, but you are deeply flawed, okay. But God is good. God's good, God's building a family for us. Last question, how often do you welcome or honor others? How often do you welcome or honor others? One, you are insecure and closed off. You are not interested in having people in your life, you shouldn't be in their life, everything's just cleaner

if I just kind of hide behind this introvert tag over here and I'm just not, hey, I don't talk to people. The Lord is building something better than that for you. I'm not saying you can't be an introvert, I'm not saying you can't have time alone. I'm married to an introvert, she's a lovely woman. But there's a way to look at your life where you think it's all yours. And then there's a way to look at your life where you understand that it's meant to be shared with other people. You can't introvert your way through Christianity. It's not some paradise where you get to leave people alone and they get to leave you alone, that's not how this works. That's not what 22 instances of greet or welcome in Romans 16 tells us. What's 10, what's like an ideal here? Look, it would just be a couple of times a week. You are welcoming church people into your life in some capacity.

And again, look, it's not to shame you, it's to encourage you. This is what Jesus is building for us. He's building this, he's building something in each of us so that all of us can share that, remind us, believe, believe that even though it's hard and it hurts, yes, Jesus is going to use that, even the pain to grow us, to shape us, to form us and to give us a family. In Hebrews 12 it talks about Jesus looking at the cross and it says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. And here's just what I wanna say. Let's, for the joy set before us, let's embrace what Jesus is doing in our church, in our local church. And just plain old South Burleson. Let's embrace it. There's something beautiful going on. There's something that the Lord is building in us and for us.

Let's make room in our schedules, our homes, our circles of concern. Let's make room for other people. Let's make room in our hearts to love people like family. And then, as we do, I don't wanna call it the worship team calling back up. As we do, right, as we begin to see that, I wanna just kinda dare you to watch, watch what Jesus does as he performs great things. In Ephesians 2:10, I wanna leave you with this. In Ephesians 2:10, it talks about,

it talks about good works laid up for us to do. The Lord Jesus Christ, before eternity passed, okay, before the foundations of the world, that God in heaven was laying out good works for you to do. And it even says, in 2.10, it says, so that you will do them. Which is kind of obvious, but I think it's great that it actually says it. It's laying out good works for you to do, not for you to admire them, not for you to rue the opportunity that you blew, not for you to regret, not for you to be hurt, but to do them. And that when you do them, something happens. You begin to cooperate with what Jesus is building in you, and you begin to help Jesus build something, not just for you, but for others. Maybe something we can see in Romans 16 is that our church is a gift. Our church, this church family right here, it's a gift. You can enjoy it, you can hate it. You can try to return it.

My encouragement, embrace it. Embrace what Jesus is doing in it. All of our flaws, all of our imperfections. We're gonna have a time of response. No, I'm going to be back there where the couches and chairs are. And look, I'm not sure even what the Lord is saying or doing or convicting or anything like that. I'm not sure, I'm not gonna try to guess, but what I will say is, it's probably a good time to start talking to somebody about it. To start experiencing the family that Jesus is building for you. He's put me as one of the shepherds over it.

Let me shepherd, let me help. If you need prayer, you got a question, you got something to work through, man, I'll be there. Let me pray for us. Lord, thank you for this church. Thank you for the gift that we have of a church family. And Lord, I pray that you would just spark our imaginations and fill us with hope and encouragement that you are building these things. Even when we don't know, even when we're not paying attention, even when we're kind of asleep at the wheel, you aren't, you're carefully putting things together. Help us to find joy in that, help us to be encouraged in that, help us to cooperate with that.

It's your name that we pray, amen. Would you stand as we sing.