The Centrality of the Ministry of the Word

I do bring greetings from the
Brethren at Faith Community Church, one of your sister churches,
as well as the believers from Nikšić. As Pastor Frasko said,
in the Sunday school hour, we’ll be telling you more particularly
about some of those biblical principles of missions and how
we are seeking to apply them in Montenegro. We’ll be doing
that in the next hour. This morning, I want to consider
Acts 20 verses 17 and following with you. So if you’ll turn to
Acts 20 verses 17 and following. I’ll be reading them and then
I’ll set forth what we’re going to be examining from this text.
A little introduction here. Paul had been in Ephesus for
three years. And then he left, and he traveled,
and now he’s traveling back nearby Ephesus. And he longs to see
the brethren, that is the leaders of the brethren, one more time.
He’s not quite in Ephesus. He’s going to be by Miletus. And so he calls the Ephesian
elders together so that he can meet with them one last time.
And this is what happens. From Miletus, he sent to Ephesus
and called for the elders of the church. And when they had
come to him, he said to them, you know, from the first day
I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you. serving the Lord with all humility,
with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting
of the Jews. How I kept back nothing that
was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly
and from house to house. testifying to Jews and also to
Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ. And see, now I go bound in the
Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to
me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city,
saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things
move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may
finish my race with joy and the ministry which I receive from
the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And indeed, now I know that you
all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God will see my
face no more. Therefore, I testify to you this
day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have
not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore,
take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God
which he purchased with his own blood.” For I know this, that
after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing
the flock. Also from among yourselves, men
will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples
after themselves. Therefore, watch, And remember
that for three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night
and day with tears. So now, brethren, I commend you
to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build
you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
I’ve coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. Yes, you
yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities
and for those who are with me. I’ve shown you in every way by
laboring like this that you must support the weak. And remember
the words of the Lord Jesus that he said, it is more blessed to
give than to receive. And one day had said these things,
when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with
them all. And let us pray once more as
well. Lord, help us this morning, open
our hearts, help us to give heed to your word that we may grow
in our appreciation of what your word is and the place that it
should have in the midst of ministry and of life. We pray in Jesus’
name, Amen. Our main topic this morning is
going to be the centrality of the ministry of the Word in ministry
and in everyday life. But the centrality of the ministry
of the Word Now, before we get into that, I want to highlight
some uniqueness in this portion of Scripture. And that is that
Paul here has gathered together the elders, the leaders of the
church in Ephesus. It’s his only instruction to
ministers. It’s his farewell charge to them.
He believes that he is not going to see them again. And so this
time is going to be very, very important. And they met for several
hours, many hours. And yet here we have a distillation
of the most salient points that were covered during that time
together. But I want you to visualize just
for a moment how critical and how important a time this is.
He’s meeting with them for what he believes to be the very last
time. It’s as if, we heard our brother
who was in the military, it’s as if a husband and a father
is going away to war and he believes he’s not going to be coming back.
Or he may not come back. And he gathers his family together
for one last meeting. And you can know that he’s going
to dwell on those things that are most important. And so Paul
is using this time to focus on those things that are most important. He’s going to look back and highlight
what was most important during the time he was with them. And
then he’s going to point them forward. He’s not going to lose
time with small talk, but he’s going to focus on what is most
important. Note that. And then, I would
like to note that though he is speaking to elders in particular,
we know that this portion of Scripture is for all of us. It is for all of us. And in these
ways in particular, we can all benefit. Of course, if you’re
elders or aspiring to be leaders, there’s a most particular instruction
here. Otherwise, as those who are led,
we know what we should be expecting within church life. We know what
we should be living in. And then the Bible tells us that
every Christian is called to ministry, not as an office bearer,
but to be ministering to others. In Ephesians 4.12, we read that
the work of pastors and teachers is to equip the saints for works
of ministry. And as we grow in Christ, we
should be growing as teachers being able to help others. And
so in Hebrews 5.11 it says, we have much to say about this,
but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact,
though by this time you ought to be teachers, You’re not. You need somebody to explain
the most basic things. And so as we see what he tells
leaders as the most important thing to be teaching, then we
know that it applies to all of us in our day to day life as
well as we would seek to instruct and help others. Then these things
are of vital importance. Having noted that, I will say
that this is a wonderful passage. to really learn about what is
important in church life. And there are a number of things
that are in this text which we’re not going to be covering. The
very question of church government is set forth here because we
have elders gathering who are then called overseers, who are
called to shepherd. And so we have elders overseers
and pastors all being the same people. We see an emphasis on
shepherding. The elders are told to shepherd
the church of God. We see a vital community life
amongst the believers. Paul was in and among all the
believers. He was in their homes. And we
can see in that a vital connectedness with the brethren to one another.
And all of those things are very worthwhile to explore. But what
we’re going to be considering this morning is the centrality
of the ministry of the Word of God. And we’re going to do that
first by demonstrating that, in fact, this text shows us that
the ministry of the Word is central in church life. And we’re going
to develop that. So first we’re going to demonstrate
and develop that centrality. Then we’re going to consider
what is the content of the ministry of the word as we see it here.
And then thirdly, we’ll note in what way should the ministry
of the word be conducted, the manner of the ministry. So first,
let’s demonstrate that in fact, in this text, we clearly see
the centrality of the ministry of the word. In verse 20, 21, 24, 25, 27,
31, and 32, we see this. And let’s take a look at that
then. First, verse 20. He says, I kept back nothing
that was helpful, but what? Proclaimed it to you and taught
you. So he proclaimed the Word of
God, he taught the Word of God. The word there is announce and
teach. In verse 21, testifying to Jews
and also to Greeks’ repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. He testified in word about repentance
and faith. Verse 24, at the end he says, that he focused on in order to
finish the race with joy and the ministry which you receive
from the Lord Jesus, and what was that? To testify to the gospel
of the grace of God. In word, he testified of that
which he knew, the word of truth concerning the gospel. In verse
25, and indeed I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching,
and there’s the very particular word preaching, the kingdom of
God will see my face no more. In verse 27, We read again, “…for
I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God
to announce.” In verse 31, we read, “…therefore watch and
remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone.”
And what did He warn them about? He warned them about what would
happen if they didn’t live in Christ. He warned them according
to the Word of God. And note verse 32, where he says,
now, brethren, I commend you to God and to what? The Word
of His grace, which is able to build you up. And so, 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8 times in this rather short passage,
he highlights, as he looks back, what were the most important
things that he did while he was among them. Later on, as he points
them forward, he adds additional things. And we also see in addition
to the ministry of the Word, he highlights that he was among
them. But note that eight times he highlights that which was
central. The ministry of the Word. Teaching, preaching, witnessing,
testifying, warning. Now as we consider that, note
something interesting. And that is, what’s missing here? He doesn’t point to the concerts
they had. He doesn’t point to the great
dramas they had. He doesn’t point to the puppet
shows or the great times of entertainment they had. Now, there’s a place
for those. I’m not categorically saying
there’s no place for those things, but at the heart of ministry,
those were absent and they’re not mentioned. Now, Some people
would say, oh come on, that’s a straw man, that’s silly. Drama
and concerts and multimedia and movies and that sort of thing.
He doesn’t mention movies, he doesn’t mention multimedia. And
some would say, well they didn’t have movies back then. They didn’t
have multimedia. They didn’t do concerts. So he was just doing what was
appropriate to his time. But you know, that’s not the
case. This was during the Greco-Roman Empire. This was during the Roman
Empire. And every Roman city had an amphitheater
where people gathered and the Greeks perfected drama to a very
high state of art to which today playwrights look back to the
principles of drama discovered and codified by the Greeks. And if you want to talk about
multimedia, Have you ever heard of gladiators? They would have
an amphitheater, and some of them, they would flood with water,
and ships would come out, boats would come out, and they’d have
death to death, life fights, with ship to ship, killing each
other, grappling with each other. And then you know the typical
gladiatorial combats. You know, the stuff that we have
on TV today, as bad and as horrific as it is, can’t compare with
the attention-gripping drama that was present in the Greco-Roman
age. And so that’s what Paul was competing
with to get people’s attention spans. The stuff that we have
today is nothing compared to that. And yet Paul did not say,
well, since in this cult we want to do contextualization, and
we want to be culturally relevant. And so since the Romans have
the amphitheater and have this great multimedia production,
that’s what we need to do. Didn’t do it. But he used the
means that God had ordained. Now we go a little further. Can
we consider some object today and think they’re being very
modern? And they think, well, you know,
that’s all great, but really what we need is signs and wonders. And if the word is really going
to be listened to, it needs to be followed by miracles. And after all, really, the word
is not suitable for today. And you really need to show something
that’s relevant, that’s wise. And people think they’re very
modern to come up with those objections. But if you look at
1 Corinthians 1, verse 22, These people that think they’re
so modern are not modern at all. For Jews request a sign and Greeks
seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified
to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.
But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power
of God and the wisdom of God.” And so, be encouraged, brethren. And that is one other application
of this message. As you are committed to the ministry
of the word, and I know you are, be encouraged that this is the
means that God has given. And you don’t have to pander
to the latest fashions that are going through evangelical circles.
And you can know that God uses preaching in a special way in
spite of people’s lusting after signs and wonders, or relevancy,
or drama, or whatever it is. So consider that as we demonstrate
and develop. But now I want to look with you
at the word that’s used in verse 25. And here I want to say that
I’m going to do a little mixing in the message in that on one
hand I’m going to focus on preaching in particular as part of that
set of the ministry of the word. So there’s witnessing, there’s
testifying, there’s teaching, there’s warning, and then there’s
preaching. And I want to focus a little
bit on preaching and some of these things that I’m about to
say apply most particularly to preaching, but then I’m going
to step back and say, in a lesser degree, they really apply to
all of the ministry of the Word, and so to all of you, even as
you would minister in the Word. And so Paul, in verse 25, says,
And indeed I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching
the kingdom of God, We’ll see my face no more.” And he uses
a special word for preaching, kyrison. The preacher is called
a kyrix. And those who have studied Greek,
I use the modern Greek pronunciation, if it sounds a little different.
But this word for preaching, the preacher, is a very special
word. It has some history in the Greek
city-state. in which the Greek city-state
would call an official herald, and they would empower the official
herald to go and give messages to other city-states, to opposing
armies, to enemies, to friends, but the preacher the kiriks,
would be given a message from his city-state, from his government,
from his ruler. And then he would go and he would
speak forth that message. And in doing so, he spoke with
the absolute authority of those that had sent him. He wasn’t
there giving his own opinions, but he was saying, surrender
or you will be destroyed. Or he would say, your freedom
is granted. The siege is lifted. And then
the siege was lifted. Or if they surrendered, they
would not be attacked. But he could go and with absolute
authority and confidence speak the word, because it was not
his. And he had safe conduct. He was inviolable. He spoke with
authority. And people knew, that army knew,
that before them was not just that one man speaking, but it
was the entire government and city-state behind him. Well,
that’s the word that Paul uses for preaching and for the preacher. And in the Bible then, A preacher
is one sent by God with God’s message, not his own. And as
he speaks, he speaks, thus saith the Lord. And he does so not
on his own authority, but because he is repeating and applying
the very words of God. And as such, those listening
are not merely listening to a man, but they’re listening to God
speaking through the man as long as he is being faithful to the
text and to God. Now, the implications of that
are amazing. For those who would preach, it
means we have to be extraordinarily careful in what we preach. we
need to stick to the text and set forth what God has given
us. We can’t come up with our own ideas. But as we do so, we
do not fear and we know that God works through those words
and that God is active. As hearers of the word being
preached, we need to be careful to listen. We need to know through
that man, weak as he may be, God is speaking to us. And we’re
accountable. We have to do what is being said.
It’s not a matter of opinion. It’s not a matter for discussion. Very important implications. That’s a focus on preaching in
particular. And then, as we consider preaching,
I want you to know that there is a wonderful and special promise
that is connected to the preaching of God’s Word. Romans 10, 17
says, Faith comes by hearing. in hearing by the Word of God.
There’s some minor translation possibilities there, but the
essence is faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God,
hearing the Word of Christ. The Word of God is active. The Word of God creates faith. The Word of God moves in people’s
hearts. And faith comes from hearing
the Word of God. And then faith is built up through
the hearing of the Word of God. Sometimes people ask, you know,
in this post-communist era in Montenegro, are people hungry
for the Word of God? And I have to say, not really.
And the Bible says no one seeks after God. Now, God works in
people’s hearts, but the primary means He uses to work in people’s
hearts is the preaching of the Word. So, it’s as the Word goes
forth that people start being hungry and seeking. Preaching,
God has promised to use it in a special way. And it’s powerful. It’s changing. We can also note
with Paul saying that he had been in Ephesus for three years,
that there’s an accumulative effect to preaching. And later
on, when he says that he entrusts them to the Word, which is able
to build them up, there’s a cumulative, progressive role in the Word
of God that it continues to work. There then, we have a demonstration
and a development of the ministry of the word and some of the meanings,
I’d like to now consider the content of the ministry of the
word. What should we be preaching? What should we be testifying
about? What should we be warning people
about? And I want to divide this into
two parts. We should be setting forth the gospel And we should
be setting forth the whole counsel of God. And so in verse 24, we
see the gospel particularly mentioned. But none of these things moves
me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish
my race with joy in the ministry which I received from the Lord
Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.” We should
be speaking of the Gospel. We should be speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul mentions the Lord Jesus
three times in this section. And our preaching should be Christ-centered. Our preaching should be pointing
people to Christ, our preaching should have the gospel. And this
is true for unbelievers and for believers. Unbelievers need to
hear the gospel, and as believers we need to be reinforced and
encouraged in the gospel. In Romans chapter 1, Paul is
writing to the Romans to a church. And he says that he’s eager to
preach the Gospel to them. This was a church. They were
already believers. He was eager to preach the Gospel
to them. As believers, we need to hear
the Gospel. We need to be reinforced and
encouraged in the Gospel. And I’ll point out that in this
text, we have important elements of the Gospel. And as He’s speaking
to the elders, to those mature in the faith, He’s reminding
them of essential elements of the Gospel. And it just flows
out of what He’s saying. And so, Look at verse 21. We see that he was testifying
to Jews and to Greeks’ repentance. Well, if he’s testifying about
repentance, this means that man has a need to repent. And the
total depravity of man is presupposed. So, he talked about repentance.
In verse 26, he says he’s innocent of the blood of all men. There’s
a sword hanging over sinners’ heads, as Jonathan Edwards said.
It’s not only that people are sinners and need to repent, but
if they don’t repent, they stand before a God who will judge them
certainly. And so judgment, and the threat
of judgment, and the reality of judgment, and the deserved
judgment of those who refuse Christ, is something that we
need to set forth. Grace. Salvation is by grace is highlighted
in verse 24 and 32. And so we need to explain to
people that they’ve sinned. They’re standing, going to the
judgment of God, and yet God calls them to himself in grace. And we typically know that Grace
is undeserved favor. But it’s more than that. It’s
favor in spite of undeservedness and being against God. We see
the substitutionary atonement in verse 28. Therefore, take
heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy
Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God
which He purchased with the blood of His own. God in Christ has
purchased a church for Himself through the blood of Jesus Christ.
And here we see the substitutionary atonement. We see the covenantal
redemption. Or particular redemption as well.
That God in particular has purchased the church through the blood
of Christ. And we need to explain to people
that they were guilty. That their blood was to be shed
in judgment, but that Jesus Christ shed His blood instead of, in
the place of, all those who believe in Him. We have the call to faith and
repentance as the means by which we receive. So in verse 21, We
read that he was testifying to Jews and also to Greeks repentance
towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Both faith
and repentance. And you can’t separate the two.
Faith is looking to God and repentance is turning away. You can’t look
to God unless you turn your back to sin. And you can’t turn your
back to sin unless you’re looking to God. And so faith and repentance
both are part of the Gospel and to be preached. And as people do look in faith
and repentance, and as any of you would look in faith to the
Lord Jesus, if you have not done so, you will know that your sins
are forgiven. You will know that the sword
that hangs over your head, worse than the sword of Damocles, worse
than any sword you can imagine, that sword will be removed. And then, in verse 32, we have
a wonderful Gospel promise of growth and sanctification. So
now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of His
grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance
among all those who are sanctified. So, sanctification is a part
of the Gospel. As we look to Christ, we’re forgiven
of our sins. We’re given a new life. But there’s
more. We have the promise of growth. Growth in holiness. Growth in
love. Growth in beauty. Growth with
God. Growth with one another. The
Christian life is a life of growth. And this comes out of the Gospel.
And it comes out of the Word of God. So, he presented the Gospel.
That was the content. And then, he presented the whole
will of God, which we see in verses 27 and verse 20. In verse 20, he says,
he did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable
or beneficial. And in verse 27, We read, I have
not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. So he called them to Christ,
and then he called them to live in Christ. with the whole counsel
of God. Not just what they wanted to
hear. And not just His favorite topics. But He taught them the
whole counsel of God. As we consider the ministry of
the Word central in Christian life, in the church, we want
to hear the whole counsel of God. We want to hear the whole
Bible. We want to hear everything that God has for us. And as preachers,
we need to be preaching everything that God has. And one of the
good ways to ensure that that takes place is some program of
consecutive exegetical preaching through major portions of the
Scripture. So that after a period of time,
you can say that you’ve preached or that you’ve heard portions
from the whole Bible, major portions, entire books. And in this way,
You’re protected and the preacher is protected. Otherwise, you
know what happens is the preacher will preach on his favorite topics.
And you’ll hear his favorite topics. And that’s only part
of what God wants you to know. But when you’re, as a discipline,
preaching through major portions of the Scripture, you’re going
to come across things that you may not be familiar with. And
the preacher, even though he’s gone to seminary, will have to
study some more in order to present that. And you’ll touch on topics
that are difficult and hard and that you may not want to hear.
But that’s part of the ministry of the Word. So that’s what God
wants us to be preaching and hearing. Now I want to consider
the manner. First of all, I’m going to focus
on preaching in particular, the Chirizo. How should formal preaching
be taking place? But then we’ll apply that to
the whole of the ministry of the word. Well, the official
preaching in the church should primarily be done by those who
are called and gifted to preaching. Primarily, there are extraordinary
circumstances, but as we look in the Bible, we see that God
chooses and gifts particular men to be preachers and then
to preach. And as we see in the Bible, who
did most of the preaching? We see it’s those who have been
called and set apart. So, Paul and Barnabas in Acts
13 had hands laid on them and were set apart to go and preach.
When we consider Jeremiah, we see that he was a man with a
particular burden from God. And let’s take a look at Jeremiah
20. Jeremiah 20. I’ll read verse 9. Then I said, Jeremiah, I will
not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. I’ve burned out. It’s hard. Things
aren’t going right. His word was in my heart like
a burning fire, shot up in my bones. I was weary of holding
it back and I could not.” And so the preacher called to be
the public herald is one who has a call from God, a gift from
God, and then he speaks with authority. And he is told, to
speak with all authority in Titus 2.15. He’s told to rebuke and
correct. And so, preachers who are called
in the preaching ministry need to be very clear that they speak
with the authority of God as they’re preaching the text. And
in that case, they speak as if they expect people to obey and
to listen. And they speak authoritatively
and they call. And if they don’t say, thus saith
the Lord, they say, this is what God wants you to do. And you
have to do this. It’s not, well, you know, there’s
a couple of views on this and, you know, you can choose to go
this way or you can choose to go that way. God wants you to
be called to His Word clearly and with authority. This authority is only as we
exegete the text. God wants preaching to have a
certain sobriety and soberness, not devoid of joy and humor occasionally,
but there needs to be a sobriety about it. And it needs to be
done with passion. With passion. We’ll look back
at Acts 20. And you can see that Paul was
full of passion. In verse 19, He says, serving the Lord with humility
with many tears. And again, in verse 31, he says,
therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not
cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. And as he
says that he’s innocent of the blood of all men, you can be
sure that that wasn’t I’m innocent of the blood of all men. But
I’m innocent. There’s blood. There’s a reality
of judgment. It’s a serious thing and I’m
innocent of it. We need to let the text move
our hearts that as we speak, those hearing can be called into
the truth and receive the truth of the text in emotional tenor
as well. If we’re unemotional, if we’re
uninterested, if we’re monotonous in what we’re speaking, then
those that are listening are not going to think it’s very
important. And Rick Anderson uses some similar illustrations,
but and there are many such illustrations, but if you’re in a place, a crowded
building or a dormitory and somebody comes up at night and knocks
on your door and says, I think maybe there’s a fire, it might
be good to consider getting out in a few minutes, this place
is going to be burned to the ground. What would you think
of such a person? You wouldn’t take them seriously,
but if somebody knocks loud, opens your door and says, there’s
a fire, we need to be careful not to panic, but we need to
start moving out now. You’re going to take that message
seriously. We need to have an appropriate passion and let God
move us and let the meaning of the text. And so if it’s a text
about joy, there should be a joy in our hearts and then in our
voices that communicate it to those who hear. This is not a
feigned acting, but it’s a reality of being in touch with the text.
We get away with this because we’ve gotten away from this in
society because we hear news casting where, you know, if it’s
a hundred people being killed in a very brutal way in a massacre
somewhere, or if it’s the weather report, or if it’s the sexual
escapades of some movie star, it’s all pretty much in the same
tenor. But we need to get back that the Word of God is authoritative. We need to be moved with passion
and we need to communicate that. Well, that’s all true about preaching
formally, but guess what? It’s true in our day-to-day lives
as well. And so, as we’re speaking, we
have a calling, all that are Christians. We may not have a
call to public preaching ministry, but we all have a call to live
out a life that shows forth Christ, don’t we? And as we do so, we
should do so with authority when we’re speaking to our friends.
We shouldn’t let them think that the things when we witness to
them that this is a matter of, well, you know, you can do it
or not do it, but we need to communicate with them earnestly
and have a passion in our life as we speak to people. And we
need to be moved by the things of God. There’s other things if we had
more time. Notice the frequency, day and night, often. Notice
the place, publicly and from house to house. Preachers should
be involved in public and house to house ministry. We shouldn’t
have a situation where, you know, my pastor is really cool. When
he comes and visits us, you couldn’t even tell that he’s a preacher
or pastor. No, that’s not what we should be saying. We should
say, you know, he’s great, you know, and he socializes with
us and he’s among us and we really know he’s with us. But we shouldn’t
say, and you couldn’t even tell he’s a preacher. We’ll close
with some applications. Here in Fort Collins, In Oxnard,
in Ikshitch, may the Word of God, may the Word of Christ richly
dwell among us from the pulpit and in day-to-day life. May Christ
be proclaimed in the way that we’ve seen here, but in our day-to-day
lives, may we speak to one another of Christ. May the Word of God
be present in our families, in our friendships, during the week,
Let’s come to hear the Word of God with excitement and with
joy, knowing that God is going to speak to us as preachers.
Let’s be careful and let’s diligently do what God has of us. And then
in our whole Christian life, let’s be moved with a passion
to live in Christ. Let’s pray. Oh God, Your Word is powerful,
rich, life-changing. Your Word is You speaking to
us. It is Christ made known to us.
It is Christ speaking to us. Lord, help us to grow in our
knowledge and grow in this grace. Bless Your Word here and in our
lives. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen. Yeah.