Nuturing Genuine Fellowship

The cutting room floor, that
discussion of grace and peace that you find in verse seven.
Essentially, I have treated it fully on four other occasions. You will find grace and peace.
Uttered in nearly every one of Paul’s epistles, Romans, 1st
and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
both Thessalonian epistles and all three of the pastoral epistles.
One little difference of the epistles to Timothy is that he
adds mercy. As elders are in such great need
of mercy, in addition to grace and peace, I would just encourage
you. I’ve treated it when we preach
through Ephesians, when I preached more recently through Philippians.
Well, recently is two years ago. First Timothy, we treated it
and Titus. We treated it as well. So I would just. I commend you
to those particular tapes, respectively, and pick up the discussion on
grace and peace. It is much more than just a passing
greeting. It is much more. It has great
meaning and I commend you to those particular sites. If you
would, I want you to press on into the Book of Romans. We’ll
pick it up in verse eight this morning, beginning with another
confession or at least an acknowledgement on my part. I did not plant a
garden this year. Somebody made the comment some
time ago that it seemed as if the agricultural metaphors and
illustrations had dried up and they have. I didn’t plant a garden
this year or last year. I love gardening. I love planting
and cultivating and getting down in the earth, harvesting my own
vegetables, even if I can’t stand the taste of some of them. My
dislike for tomatoes is well documented. And even if my harvest
ends up costing nearly five times what the same items would cost
in the grocery store, I still love to garden. To know that
I grew them, that I did so without pesticides, herbicides or any
other sides is quite pleasing. For the past two years, I have
not gardened, not because I didn’t want to. I did. Barbara even
tried to give me an out to let me off the hook by giving me
a spiritual excuse, which I was tempted to lay hold of. That
of yielding to God’s command to the Jews in Exodus 23, 11. You shall sow your land for six
years and gather in its field. But on the seventh year, she
did this on the seventh year. You shall let it rest and lie
fallow so that the needy of your people may eat whatever they
leave. The beast of the field may eat, in our case, mice and
whatever. Now, two years ago, interestingly
enough, when I first took a hiatus from my little garden, it would
have been my seventh year of gardening in our house. our current
home. But to be honest, I did not abstain
from gardening because of the Sabbath mandate to Israel. Besides,
I didn’t see any of you milling around my backyard, kicking through
and gleaning through the garden either. Bottom line of why I
have not gardened these past two years is that it’s work. I had almost convinced myself. The gardening was trouble free.
Easy, right? Till up the soil, throw down
some seed, pray for water and stand back and watch it gloriously
come to life and bear free. And then begin to plan and think
through how in the world are you going to distribute all this
bounteous harvest, right? The problem is, it just isn’t
the case. It’s work. It’s time-consuming. First, you have the soil prep.
You can’t just till it in because you’ve got to till in amendments.
And then you’ve got to test the pH of the soil. And you’ve got
to make sure that the texture is right and proper. And then
you’ve got to start some plants indoors or purchase seedlings,
which are even more expensive. And then you’ve got to begin
the great and arduous task of protecting the plants. protecting
them from cutworms and planting little toothpicks all around
those delicate little seedlings that the cutworms mow down at
the surface. The late spring hard freezes,
the hail, the birds, dogs, raccoons, children, and on and on and on. And then once the young plants
have finally established themselves to continue to nurture them,
to watch over every manner of insect, beetles, mites, worms,
blah, blah, blah, and on it goes. Not to mention weeds, bindweed,
pigweed, thistle. Did you ever think and wonder
how come we don’t have to nurture weeds? It’s all part of the fall. And I guess my observation was
simple, that a lot of people come to the same incorrect conclusion
about the church, that it’s easy, that it will happen, that it
will just happen. that it will grow and flourish. And all we’ve
got to do is sit back and watch and wait to reap the harvest.
It’s not true. The church will not be built
unless it, too, is properly nurtured. And this morning, Paul wants
to adjust and challenge our thinking because there are things that
are absolutely necessary for the church, this church. If you’re in Romans chapter one,
verse eight, as we come into this first great section and
by great, I mean large section of Scripture, this section will
take us all the way down to chapter three, verse 20. It is the section
that I told you earlier lays down the foundational truth.
About humanity, that we are utterly sinful and that we stand ready,
already ready to reap the just judgment of God. These verses
before us form the entrance into that discussion. But these words,
verses eight through 12, are relational, they’re matters pertaining
to Paul’s relationship to the Christians in Rome, and they
seem to be unrelated to the heavy discussion of sin that lies just
ahead. This is not a difficult knot
to unravel. Stay with me in verses eight
through 12. Paul discusses his relationship with the Roman Church
in verses 13 through 17. He begins to discuss the first
of two great motivators in preaching the gospel. The first motivator
is the righteousness of God. The proffered righteousness of
God is what motivates Paul to go and tell the world. That there
is the great means of salvation. Paul wanted to visit Rome because
his great desire was to preach the gospel wherever he went.
The first reason he provides is the righteousness of God,
and that beginning in verse 18 leads directly into the second
great motivator. For preaching the gospel. And
that is the sinfulness of humanity. Those two things, the righteousness
of God and the sinfulness of humanity, propel Him, propel
us into laying out a clear gospel
testimony to this fallen world. If you would, pick up in verse
8 with me. First, I thank my God, through
Jesus Christ, for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed
throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit,
in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as
to how unceasingly I make mention of you. Always in my prayers,
making requests, if perhaps now at last, by the will of God,
I may succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you in order
that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be
established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you
while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours
and mine. Just like the garden, if we don’t
nurture the church, if we don’t attend to the church, The church
will not grow. The church will not flourish.
The church will not be the God honoring place that God desires
it to be. We are to nurture one another
in the course of our Christian life, we are to nurture this
fellowship, we are to attend to it, give it great attention. And first and foremost, Paul
tells the church in Rome essentially that a God honoring church cannot
be built, first of all, without an appreciation of God’s grace,
an appreciation of God’s grace. Look at verse eight where Paul
says, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, for
you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the
whole world. It was typical. Typical of Paul. It was typical of a formal letter
in Paul’s day to follow the greeting that to and from that stand at
the front of the epistle, to follow that with an expression
of gratitude. Usually an expression of gratitude
to or about the recipient or the recipients, plural. In every
letter that Paul wrote, Galatians accepted, Paul followed the same
pattern introduction, thanksgiving and then the body of the letter.
To the Corinthians, he wrote, I thank my God always concerning
you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus. He thanks the different churches
for different things because he is observing them as they
are in Christ. To the Ephesians, he wrote something
entirely different. For this reason, I too, having
heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you
and your love for all the saints, Do not cease in giving thanks
for you.” To the Philippians, he wrote something entirely different.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. And he remembered back
to the riverside where he met Lydia and the women and they
planted a church. He thought back to the Philippian
jailer who repented. He thought back to all of the
interaction that he had had with the Philippians and a great history
of faithfulness. To the Thessalonians, Paul wrote,
we give thanks to God always for all of you making mention
of you in our prayers. In the case of the Roman Christians.
Paul was particularly thankful for their witness, the fact that
they had a testimony and that that testimony was going forward. This witness was likely not a
formal, organized effort of evangelism. That’s not what Paul’s talking
about at all. It wasn’t missionary work that the Romans had worked
up. Rather, it was the testimony
observed by others in their reception of the gospel and the application
of God’s grace subsequently. And so note when Paul says, I
thank my God. Paul is thankful and that thankfulness
is for the Roman Christians, but that thankfulness is not
directed to the Roman Christians. In other words, Paul doesn’t
thank the Romans for achieving their high standard of faith
and faithfulness. Instead, he thanks God, the one
who had granted the Roman Christians, as all believers, the grace needed
to please God. The fact that the Romans believed
and had a testimony at all was only due to the abundant grace
of God. Paul says, first of all, I thank
my God. I thank my God through Jesus Christ. And I want to pause there. There are many that didn’t even
comment on that little prepositional phrase. through Jesus Christ. But if we pause and meditate
on that for a moment, we are reminded once again that Jesus
Christ is the mediator between God and men. There is no other.
And the very fact that Paul would pause and submit his gratitude
through the great means, the channel of the mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ, tells us a great deal. Paul will go on to tell
the Romans that all things are through the Lord Jesus. Romans
11 36 says from him and through him and to him are all things. But I want you to grasp the extent
of that in a literal fashion. Let’s consider for a moment what
all comes through the mediator. In the Gospel of John, verse
17, John writes that the law was given through Moses. Grace
and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ,
we have peace. Acts 10, 36. Paul has already
told us that we give thanks through Jesus Christ and Paul said it
likewise to the Colossians in 317. Whatever you do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving
thanks through him to God. He is the great mediator, not
only grace and truth and peace, but eternal life. The Scriptures
tell us that eternal life was given through the Lord Jesus
Christ, Romans 5, 21. Just as sin reigned in death,
even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. God is glorified through Christ,
Romans 16, 27, 1 Peter 4, 11, Jude 25. We realize our adoption as sons
through the Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1 5. He predestined
us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself. Everything. Jesus Christ is the mediator
for everything. righteousness. Philippians 1.1
The fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to
the glory and praise of God. The Holy Spirit, Titus 3, 5 and
6. Sanctification, Hebrews 13, 21. Judgment comes through the Lord
Jesus Christ, Romans 2, 16. Comfort comes through the Lord
Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 1, 5. Confidence, 2 Corinthians
3, 4. Reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5, 18. All creation. was made through the agency of
the Lord Jesus Christ. All things have been made by
Him and for Him. Colossians 1.16. Need I even
add faith? Faith is through the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are believers through Him.
1 Peter 1.21. And salvation. John 317, God did not send the
sun into the world to judge the world, but the world might be
saved through him. He is our mediator. And when
Paul pauses and inserts that little preposition, prepositional
phrase, it isn’t just filler. He is reminding the Roman Christians
of the great truth that Jesus Christ stands in the gap for
you and I and for them. in every possible conceivable
manner. Jesus is our mediator. As one
said it, the form of expression supposes the mediation of Christ
by whom alone we have access to the Father and for whose sake
alone either our prayers or praises are accepted. When we append,
when we close our prayer and we pray in Christ’s name, it’s
not supposed to be out of just mere formula. It is supposed
to be part of our great heart and passion that everything that
we have came to us from God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
access that we have back to God is through that same channel,
the same mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. This concept of Jesus Christ
as the mediator was outlined by Jesus himself, right? In that day, you will not question
me, John 16, 23. You will not question me about
anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father
for anything in my name, he will give it to you. Until now, you
have asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you shall receive
so that your joy may be made full. He gives them free and
confident access to God through himself. As one said, such then is the
clear doctrine of the scriptures. that in all our approaches to
God in prayer or praise, we must come in the name of Christ, that
is in him as the ground of our acceptance. Just as through Christ,
God’s grace is conveyed to man, so it is through Christ that
men’s gratitude is conveyed back to God. What a great truth that
when we bow in prayer, when we give thanks to God, We recall
always the great mediator that gave that great privilege to
us. One Puritan said it this way.
It is through him alone that all our worship and all our works
in the service of God are acceptable. Not only must our petitions ascend
to the father through the son, but our thanksgivings also. We
have no communion with God, but through the one mediator between
God and man and except through him, we are not permitted even
to return thanksgivings to God. Which at once answers the question,
does God listen? Does God attend to the prayer
of the ungodly? No. What a great privilege we
have as the saints of God, as we were reminded last week, the
saints of God have access to the Father. because of the Son. First of all, Paul says, I thank
my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is
being proclaimed throughout the whole world. The Roman Christians
had come to faith and had placed their faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. There was no little discussion
about the issue. Was their faith just so stupendous?
Were the Roman Christians just such marvelous examples of Christians
that that’s what made their faith spread abroad? Or was it just
the fact that even in Rome, in Rome, people are coming to Christ?
That’s the sense that I take it. I don’t see that their faith
was that incredible. It was no different. Paul doesn’t
necessarily commend it as being different or unique or greater
than any other Church. He merely acknowledges that their
faith, the fact that people had come to faith in the heart of
Rome and were living out that faith that was being proclaimed
throughout the whole world. Some of you know that I went
to school down the street. In the town where they sell Birkenstocks
cheap on every street corner. Well, somebody said there that,
boy, isn’t Boulder, isn’t CU, isn’t that a hard place to be
a Christian? No, it’s an easy place. You don’t even have to
be a good Christian to stick out like a sore thumb in Boulder. I think that’s what Paul’s saying
here. That even in Rome, the gospel had spread that far and
there was no formal missionary effort. The gospel alone had
gone in and taken root and begun to be established there, even
in Rome. Paul thanks God, not the Roman
believers, knowing that God was the source of grace. Paul likely
knew of the. The uphill battle that. A missionary
would face in Rome that it had to be all of God. Paul knew the
the heathen world, Paul knew what they were up against. And
how far these young believers had to have come By God’s grace
to be in Christ. Paul likely knew of areas of
weakness and sinful tendencies that the Romans had the pride
that must have surrounded everything that a Roman citizen did. And
now he sees the Roman Christians placing their faith. In a crucified
savior. Paul perhaps had heard of some
of their faithfulness. Paul perhaps knew of distinctive
marks of God’s grace in their lives. And therein lies the challenge
for us. When Paul gives thanks on behalf
of the Roman Christians, essentially, he challenges us to do likewise. To look around us, to make a
prayer list, to meditate upon our brothers and sisters in Christ
and what God has done in their life. Salvation is just the beginning.
But then when you begin to even when you listen to a testimony,
you begin to see how far God has brought people. What gifts he has worked into
them, what great usefulness for the sake of his kingdom he has
blessed them with, not because of anything in them, not because
of some great potential, because of His grace and His mercy. And
so we are to pause and prayerfully observe. We are to look, just
like we go and we look at creation, to look at the handiwork of God,
just like in any other sphere of our lives, to look at the
handiwork of God in the people that compose the church. not just thinking of others,
not just thinking the best of others as if that is going to
change them, but to look objectively for some good, some work of God
in their life, some divine element that God has put in them, and
then to thank God for that. We are to meditate on the work
of God in people’s lives. Paul did it. Paul thanked God.
He was a thankful man. He looked and recognized the
abundant grace of God and those about him. For the Romans, faith for the
Corinthians, grace for the Ephesians and the Colossians, faith and
love, Philippians, every remembrance, as we saw that pattern of thankful
recognition laid the groundwork, the foundation, if you will,
for Paul to be able to exhort others to thankfulness. God deserves
our gratitude. God deserves our praise and worship. In fact, if you consider it,
thanklessness is one of the distinguishing features, isn’t it, of the ungodly? They do not thank God. So for
Paul, thankfulness, he looks out and says it is a moral fix. Because so often thanklessness
degenerates into so much else, so many other sinful attitudes,
not the least of which is cynicism, where we just begin to criticize
critical spirit. We begin to criticize everything
and everyone around us. Nothing is good enough. No one
will do good. One writer years ago said, as
a cure for this sour fault finding attitude, I recommend the cultivation
of the habit of thankfulness. How many of us could really say
that thankfulness on behalf of the grace that God has given
to others in our midst is a habit? Not many. He goes on and says,
thankfulness is a great curative power. The heart constantly overflowing
with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness
and gloom that bother so many. They do, don’t they? A thankful
heart, he says, cannot be cynical. Thankfulness calls us to an awareness. It teaches us to observe and
acknowledge God’s grace at work in others. And so I challenge
you, first and foremost, this morning in the midst of this
section, take the phone book, take a list, whatever it means
you need. And go through the list of the saints in this body,
go through those that you know, go find out, find some that you
don’t and especially begin to observe them. Look at their lives. Observe God’s handiwork in their
lives and then begin the process of thanking God for that. It
isn’t for their sake, nor is it even for our sake that we
would do that. Ultimately, it is an act of worship. It is for
God’s sake that we pause and observe his handiwork in the
lives of other believers. Secondly, when we begin to consider the
spiritual practices that will build up the church, this church, Not only will a God honoring
church not be built without an appreciation of God’s grace,
a God honoring church cannot be built without sustained intercessory
prayer. No doubt you’re going to observe,
and as you observe the lives of your fellow Christians, you’re
not only going to observe areas of Grace at work that God has
done areas of gratitude where you can thank God for objective
things done in and through the lives of fellow believers. But
you’re going to see some flaws. You’re going to see some shortcomings,
you’re going to see some what we call positively opportunity. Look at verse nine. For God,
whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of
his son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention
of you. Always in my prayers, making
requests, and perhaps now at last, by the will of God, I may
succeed in coming to you. Paul desired so much to go to
Rome and to minister there. The sense of this passage seems
to be this. God himself knows that I want
to come to you. And he knows that since I have
not yet been able, I earnestly pray for you and I call him to
be my witness. He knows. For God, whom I serve
in my spirit, in the preaching of his son, it is in the course
of disseminating the gospel, preaching the gospel. That Paul pointed to this great
truth. For God is my witness, how unceasingly
I make mention of you. The fact that Paul prayed for
the Roman Christians was an integral part of his service to God. As one said, it was the part
which he fulfilled inwardly and secretly, it was the advance
of the gospel, it was his constant prayer for churches. We’ll come
back to that thought in a moment. Paul says he prayed unceasingly,
and some have misunderstood this to think that Paul just literally
was on his knees muttering, as it were, in prayer all day long
with his eyes closed. That kind of hyperbole is common
in Scripture, and it’s silly to take it over literally. It
isn’t meant to say in a continuous, constant, exclusive exercise
of the mind in prayer. It was a regular feature of his
life. It was earnest. It was constant. You could very
easily say it was unceasing. It’s a word that Paul uses regularly,
and he uses it three times to the Thessalonians constantly,
constantly without ceasing. And he was constantly making
mention of them, uttering the word is used only of speaking
to God in prayer on others behalf. Ephesians 1.16, 1 Thessalonians
1.2, Philemon 4, always making mention to God in prayer. Paul
here just plainly points to the fact that he was remembering
the Roman Christians in his prayers, not that he was talking about
them necessarily to others. Look at this in verse 9. For
God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel
of his son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention
of you always in my prayers, making requests. Some of us have had some really
great quiet times. Some of us Aspire to a great
quiet time that few of us have really great quiet times sustained
over a long period of time over a great broad number of subjects. Isn’t that the truth? And yet, as one said, we must
thus we thus learn the duty of Christians to pray for one another.
It is a duty, but it’s also a privilege. We thus learned the duty of Christians
to pray for one another and that those who believe the gospel
are as much bound to pray for its success and the prosperity
of the churches as to labor in the work. Did you hear what he
said? Working is not enough. And I’ve known the mentality
of some that say, well, I preach, let them pray. That’s not enough. Well, I pray let them work. That’s
not enough. Both prayer and labor ought to
go together, he says, to pray without laboring is to mock God
and to labor without prayer is to rob God of his glory until
these are conjoined. The gospel will not be extensively
successful. We need to pray for each other.
We need to plead for others before God. The bottom line is that
we need to pray for each other on a regular basis. We need to
do more of it. We need to do it more intentionally.
We need to do it more intensely and we need to do so for a long,
long time. The God honoring church will
not and cannot be built without it. Thirdly, The God honoring church cannot
be built without an appreciation of God’s grace, without sustained
intercessory prayer and without interactive spiritual edification. Now, there’s a big mouthful,
isn’t it? Paul said it much easier in verse 11 and 12. For I long
to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gifts to
you. So you may be established, that
is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among
you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. I
want to just pause and note how deeply Paul desired to have fellowship
with this church. He longed to see them. We don’t
typically speak that way, do we? This is a loving body. And whenever
there’s opportunity, you get together or greeting time after
service, the fellowship hall after Sunday school all week
long. This godly group of people love each other and enjoy each
other’s company. And in a sense, maybe that’s
it. We’re together so much we don’t even have the opportunity
for longing to develop. Paul loved this word, he used
it regularly, used it of the Corinthians, the Philippians,
the Thessalonians. There’s a couple of times in
Scripture where it occurs. I just want to take you in your
mind’s eye just to see how intense this word is. In 2 Corinthians
5, 2, Paul said there, we indeed in this house, we groan, longing
to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. It is an intense
word. We really want to see you. I can’t wait to be with the Roman
Christians is essentially as much as I long for heaven itself.
1 Peter 2.2, Peter graphically
used it with regards to God’s Word. Do you remember in your
mind’s eye? Peter said there, like newborn
babes, long for the pure milk of the Word. Have you ever fed
a baby a bottle? How they just quiver, right? They can’t wait
to get the bottle. Long for the pure milk of the
Word. And Paul says, I cannot wait to see you. So that I can
impart some spiritual gift to you and don’t don’t be misled. Don’t misunderstand the word
is used in a variety of different senses in the New Testament to
speak of God’s gracious gift of salvation. Was one to refer
to the special grace gifts that were given tongues and preaching
and prophecy and the like. But here, the best way to consider
it is as referring to some benefit or blessing that the Roman Church
would receive by way of Paul’s visit, quite possibly through
his teaching ministry. Can you imagine how encouraging
it would be to have I present to you today the Apostle Paul
and I would sit down for the next four hours, right? We wouldn’t
even look at our watches. Most of us. The gifts, as one said, of which
the Holy Spirit is the author, include not only those miraculous
endowments and the ordinary gifts of teaching and exhortation,
but also those graces which are the fruit of the Spirit. He’s
back to where he began. When you and I interact. You
are imparting to me, I am imparting to you. The gifts of the Holy
Spirit, the gifts that God has given to us individually. And
when we interact, we are sharing, participating, fellowshipping
in those gifts. The spiritual gifts that God
has given to us. One person said it this way,
they would derive from Paul’s presence in the greatest consolation
from his instructions and the mysteries of salvation from his
exhortations, as well as from his example, his counsels, his
prayers, all of it. And in the course of it, they
would be established. Now, keep in mind, the Roman
Church was already established. Roman Church was already flourishing.
He doesn’t mean to say that boy until I come, you’re really not
going to we can’t put our stamp of approval on you. Not at all
what he’s saying. They were strong, he wants them
to be stronger, they were built up, he wants to build them up
further. And that’s exactly what Paul did everywhere he went,
right? In the book of Acts, they went from city to city, strengthening
all the disciples. Same word. That was Paul’s ministry. And Paul couldn’t wait to get
to Rome, not because they so desperately needed Paul, because
Paul in going there was going to gain a blessing of his own.
Watch what happens. That I may be encouraged together
with you while among you. I call the door, the greeting time
at the door, what Howard Hendricks used to call it, the glorification
of the worm, right? I have the privilege to stand
up here to open God’s word perfect material to work with, to open
it, to speak to you about it. And then I go back and hear all
the accolades. Oh, Pastor, do you realize week
in and week out how much you minister to me with your faithfulness,
with your prayer, with the way that you apply God’s grace to
your own lives? How easy then is it for Paul
to say that I may be encouraged together with you while among
you, each of us by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. It’s
not a one way street is ministry. Now, the first part of this equation.
That mutual edification is showing up. That’s the bottom line, if
you’re not here, If you’re not being here, if you’re not being
truly part of this local body, you can’t possibly mutually encourage. You can’t be used of God from
afar. It goes beyond just having your
name on a list, but really being here, coming intentionally, looking
for a way to serve, looking for a way to encourage, looking for
someone to pray for, someone to minister to. Being here in and of itself won’t
suffice. But being here and being all
here and being and doing what God himself has called and gifted
you to be and to do. That’s what will build the church.
That’s the church that God would be glorified in. Let’s go before
him. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves in your presence and we are so thankful that you’ve
been so merciful when we’ve dropped the ball on so many of these
things. We have failed so many times
to acknowledge the grace of God that you have given to other
individuals. Seeing their shortcomings, we failed to pray for them. And
so many times, Father, we come to receive only and not to give. But, Lord, You would have us
to think differently about the church. You would have us to
function differently. And I pray that You would lay
on the hearts of each of these saints the matter that You have
laid before the Roman church. That we are to consider Your
work, Your handiwork in the lives of others. And seeing the good
grace of God, we are to thank you for it. Seeing those shortcomings,
those sinful tendencies, those bad habits. Father, we are to
pray and lift them up. And always, Father, we are to
come and to gather and together share. And the common grace of
God that we enjoy in walking and serving together. Lord God,
we pray that your church would be built up. We pray that you
would be glorified. In and through this body. It’s
in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Bye.