In his sermon, 'A Church Family Portrait,' Scott Brown delves into Romans 16, highlighting the personal greetings and names mentioned by the Apostle Paul. Brown portrays this passage as a family photo album, illustrating the active participation and interconnectedness of church members in Rome. He emphasizes the importance of ordinary believers in building the Church, contrasting it with modern consumerist attitudes. Brown praises the wholehearted involvement of individuals like Phoebe, Priscilla, and Aquila, urging listeners to reflect on their own engagement in church life. He underscores the church's role as a relational community, where diverse gifts and collaborative efforts strengthen the body of Christ. Brown also highlights the significant contributions of women in ministry and the necessity of love and affection within the church. The sermon concludes with a call to embrace a maximalist vision for the Church's future, encouraging believers to invest their energy in the only eternal institution, the Church of Jesus Christ.

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 16 and find verse 1. Romans 16 verse 1. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey Word of God. I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the Church in Centuria, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the Saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of you. For indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise, greet the church that is in their house. Greet my beloved Eponaeotus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ. Greet Mary, who labored much. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen, and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles who also were in Christ before me.

Greet Amplius, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Statues, my beloved. Greet Appelles, approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my countrymen.

Greet those who are of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. Greet Trifina and Trifossa, who have labored in the Lord. Greet the beloved Pursus, who labored much in the Lord. Greet Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother and mine. Greet Asincratus, Flagon, Hermes, Patrebus, hermes, and the brethren who are with them.

Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you. The grass withers, the flower fades. But the word of our God stands forever.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these remarkable words. We pray that you would take them and inspire us, help us to see the greatness of your kingdom working together in a local church the way we see this and this delightful passage of scripture. Amen. Be seated please.

So here we go, look at all those names. This is like a family portrait of the church in Rome. And we see really the outworking of the grace of God in these people's lives in Rome. You know so far in Romans we've really been journeying through the great doctrinal categories that are in Romans up to chapter 15 verse 13. But ever since then Paul is giving various examples.

The doctrinal portion is finished. There are no commands here in this passage. There are no great doctrines in this passage, but there's just a whole bunch of people and it really is. It reads like a family photo album, but with all the captions. You know how that works, you know, you stick a photo in this album and then you write something special that happened that you hope you over you know you wouldn't be able to remember looking back and but what oozes out of these pages is the energy that people gave to the church the love that they had for one another, the desire that they had to encourage the church.

Here's what you get, these people were engaged. These were not disengaged church members. And that's what this is a picture of. It's really, it's a picture of wholehearted involvement in local church life. And this is, I think this is an important text for us in the times that we live in.

We live in an era where the church is obsessed with consumerism and individualism and easy believism and it really is a distorted picture of church life. What you have here is full-blown, full immersion church life and people who are making it happen. And it's funny this picture that's here it reads like a church directory and what we learn here is you know Romans is not just a theology textbook. It's a family photo album with a lot of Captions for real people that really lived. You know, this is not mythology these are actually real people that were that were there And so the end of the theological categories have come to us and now you have this activity and energy and devotion that's just oozing out of that.

And I think one of the big questions is, is this you? Is this me? You know, often it happens, you know, the church is a little bit like a road crew, you know, that the DOT puts out there to control road construction. You know, you've got 10 men leaning on shovels and one person in the trench actually working. But these people, they are deployed.

You can see, you can tell. The language here, they have been deployed. They have their orders. They're actually fulfilling their orders before the Lord. They're builders and that's what the church does.

The church assembles, it gathers together, the people exercise their gifts, they proclaim the gospel, they protect the gospel, they build the church. And it's, I like this list, well it's so encouraging on the one hand, but on the other hand, I think you should call all of us to ask, is this me? Am I a builder, am I just standing on my shovel? And also too, notice the the sympathy and the tender-heartedness and the love that just oozes out of this passage. You know in inspired Scripture there is a record and it's right here of human emotion and compassion between the brethren.

These people were interconnected. They were having an effect on one another's lives. And so the Apostle Paul is just explaining it. You know, you got 33 people mentioned here. 24 are from Rome.

17 of them are men, and 7 of them are women. And most of the people that are mentioned here, it's the only time you ever hear about them. They're nobodies. They just drifted into history like you and I will. But you know what?

They did their part to build the most important institution on the planet today. And that is the Church of Jesus Christ. You don't waste your time when you invest your energy in the Church. This is the only eternal institution. Even your family is so important, but your family actually is gonna be really modified in heaven and there's no marriage or giving in marriage.

We are all brothers and sisters. So okay, the outline of Romans 16, I just wanna give you a quick view of it. You've got this first of all 1 through 16, these delightful contours of church life and all these interesting people and then in verses 17 to 23 There's a pretty strong warning about how grievous it is to disturb the peace of a local church. And he's saying, for those who cause divisions, mark them and avoid them. It's very serious.

When you mess up The fellowship of the saints through causing division, you've really done a bad thing and it's not gonna go well for you. And when it starts happening, you should mark them and avoid them and not be afraid to do it. Because you're actually protecting this beautiful picture of relational harmony and joy and devotion to one another. And then the final section is the benediction, verses 24 through 27. We've been reciting that for several weeks.

So the first thing you notice really here is the love and affection and You know that here's what this means among other things The church is not just a depository of theology but it's a it's like a fellowship meal and We encounter in this passage did you notice how many times the word greet is there? Nineteen times. Greet. In other words, this is like personal relational language. Greet them.

Don't avoid them, you know, yeah they're normal people, they might be weird, yes church people can be kind of weird, all right? I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. We are. And, but he said, greet them. Don't avoid them.

Don't look the other way. Pursue. And This is just a picture of the diversity of gifts operating in the church notice to This is a picture of many women who are ministering to the church They're contributing, you know energetically They're wearing themselves out actually. Another thing too, notice the Apostle Paul, he focuses on deeds not platitudes. He's not saying well he meant well.

He's saying no here's what he did. This is how he actually lived. The gospel is meant to be you know demonstrated in real life and you don't necessarily measure love by what you feel like but you measure love by what it looks like and that's what we have here. You do that by actually doing something and and So there's this itemization of all these deeds that are done. There's so many names Names of real people who Paul knew who knew one another the church isn't meant to be an impersonal meeting you know where you come in and sit in rows like cabbage heads and then walk out.

The church is actually meant to be a relational community and so The Apostle mentions their names. You know remember the priests of Israel they would bear the names of the tribes of Israel over their heart. That's what Paul is doing here. Notice also families. There are families in here serving the church.

You got two households here. You have a husband and a wife. You have a mother and a son and you also have a mother who's not really Paul's mother but he's kind of she's kind of like Paul's mother he thinks of her as his mother. You have you have sisters you have the sisters of near us you have you actually have probably twin sisters and you have single women who are all ministering in this church and it just speaks about how single people, families, maybe people who've got families broken up, they're serving the church together as a result of what God has done. I think it's so interesting that they're just, these are unknown people, except Phoebe.

She's known a little bit more, she's mentioned more, but other than that These people are unknown. The heartbeat of the church, and don't forget this, is her ordinary, normal, unknown saints. Don't despise the day of small things for what you do in this church. God uses the ordinary people of this world, not many wise, not many powerful among you, and I don't think we should think of ourselves as a downgrade. The Apostle Paul didn't think ordinary people in the church were a downgrade.

And we shouldn't think that either. We think, oh, we just wanna have stars and amazing people around us. You know what, we're just a bunch of normal people. The church runs on regular, by the way. The Church of Jesus Christ pretty much runs on regular pastors.

There are only a few stars out there, but You know the average church size is 70 in America today? And the church runs on regular, regular pastors. You know the pastors that are in the Church and Family and Not Life Network that I operate? Look, the mega churches are like three or four hundred. They're small churches, they're unknown pastors and they get up and they preach the word every Sunday and they work their fingers to the bone and most of them are bivocational.

It's a hard life. But the church runs on regular. Isn't that brilliant? It's so counter, the church is such a counterculture. So let's first of all look at these people, these personal expressions of love.

Let's take Phoebe first, verses one and two. You have an outline in front of you. Oh yes, there are 16 points in the outline. Well, I just thought it would be fun to talk about all these people behind their backs. I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Centuria, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of you.

In other words, serve her, okay? For indeed she has been a helper of many and myself also. So this woman is in Centuria, she's close to Corinth. Paul is writing in Rome, I'm sorry, Paul is writing in Corinth. Centuria is pretty close to Corinth and she's called a helper, She is called a servant.

It's the word diaconos, it's the word we have for deacon. There are two uses of the word deacon. I think there's a formal technical term for the office of deacon. And then there's, it's also used in the Bible generally as people who are serving the church. And this is the woman who's gonna carry Paul's letter to the Romans from Corinth all the way to Rome.

She's gonna go probably 750 to 800 miles by walking and by ship. And what a remarkable woman this must have been. They should receive her. Her name comes is really a derivative of the Greek name for the god Apollo. So she was a Greek.

She grew up in paganism. She's no longer a pagan. She was named after a pagan idol. And But she's but she has not a pagan heart anymore. She says I commend you to Phoebe our sister.

We have many brothers and sisters. She is a sent one, she's a servant, and she is a helper. The word that the apostle uses for helper, it's really, it focuses in, and I'm reading from a Greek dictionary, a female guardian, a protectoress, a patroness, caring for the affairs of others and aiding them with their resources. What a woman. Are you like that woman?

Are you like that woman in the church? Helping people, assisting, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you. In other words, this is a woman that has ideas and she sees needs and she's rallying people around her to meet some of those needs. What a blessing it is. You know, there's so many women like this in the Bible, Hannah and Esther and Mary and Priscilla.

The question is, you know, if you're a woman, you know, how are you serving? How are you serving the local church of Jesus Christ? Then you go to Priscilla and Aquila. Priscilla and Aquila, this is one of the great couples in the Bible, verses three through five, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but also all the churches of the Gentiles likewise greet the church that is in their house. This is a delightful husband and wife team who dedicate their marriage, their life to serving the prosperity of the church.

And Paul is sending his greetings. This was, Maybe we could say it like this. This was a load bearing marriage. It's a load bearing marriage. They were bearing load of the church, of the most important institution on the planet.

And when a husband and wife serve together, a church gets stronger. When a husband and wife are unified, look out. The impact is a blessing in the Church of Jesus Christ. If they're divided, their impact will be far different. But it's wonderful when a husband and wife, this is hey, this is what's so nice about getting married.

You know there are people here in this congregation they're gonna be married sometime soon, okay. But here's what's really neat. When a husband and wife pool their energies together and they go create a new little kingdom and they get to build it all by themselves. And it's so much fun. And they get to have a home and they get to hopefully have children and they get to have a life in the church and maybe even a reputation like Priscilla and Aquila.

Two hearts beating as one is a massive strength to the local church. And you husbands and wives, you should be praying about how you serve the church as one. It's such a blessing. Notice this too. This was not some sort of a just sweet little romantic couple here.

They risked their necks for Paul, okay? They exposed themselves to danger for the Apostle Paul. And we don't know what that was, it's not mentioned here. Maybe they went to the magistrates to lobby for Paul. Maybe, when you identify with people who are in trouble, it puts you in harm's way.

And in this church, we should never be afraid to be identified with people who are in harm's way. We should put ourselves right with them in harm's way and not be afraid of anything. We're going to identify with doctrine and maybe people that will put us in harm's way, so be it. That's what Priscilla and Aquila did. They were bold.

They were fearless. You know, they were driven out of Rome by Claudius and they went to Ephesus and then at some point they would return, but they're just a role model couple. They were a theologically minded couple. Remember, Apollos wasn't thoroughly instructed in the gospel, and this couple sat down with Apollos and set him straight about the gospel of grace. So they were a couple who knew the Bible together and they were able together to communicate with Apollos, sound doctrine.

They had a church in their house. Greet the church that is in their house. So the question for all of y'all married people here is your marriage a power punch for this church? Are you willing to risk your necks for people who are in trouble because of the gospel. And then Eponaetus, Epanaetus, I don't get this right, You know, I just realized at men's Bible study, I've been rendering this word wrong for 50 years.

I've been reading it wrong. So I'm gonna look at it real, epenitus. I've always said epineitus, always. And so, and I actually, when I read it at the beginning of this sermon, I read it wrong. I just defaulted even though I knew it was okay.

So he was the first convert, the first fruits of Asia. You know, the first converts, what about them? They're very special because they step out of the stream. They step out of normal life and they probably feel a little bit exposed in doing such a thing. He's called beloved And this is just the bond of Christian love that they had.

You know, John, he says beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And then we come to Mary. Greet Mary who labored much for us. Well so many of these that we've read are have been Greeks and Romans but this one is she's a Jewish convert.

Her name is Mary and she labored much. The rich ministry that women can have in the church is so significant. And we would expect that those who were helping in the church were fulfilling their roles as women, which are distinctive. These women would be keepers at home. They would be, you know, a demonstration of unfading beauty.

They would perhaps, you know, even be mothers. But they labored much. It's interesting, the language that the Apostle Paul uses when he uses the word labored, it's a word that means weariness and exhaustion. She wore herself out for the church and if your Christianity doesn't make you tired once in a while you may never you may not actually be fulfilling your role as a Christian. Women, there are women in this church that labor a lot and they spend time.

There is no division of labor in the church that doesn't include weariness, So we shouldn't be afraid of weariness. People are allergic to weariness today, but church people should not be allergic to weariness and working hard. Weariness is normal, don't be afraid of it. You know there are people who become sick, they need food, there are all kinds of needs in the church. Do I labor much for the church?

Are you like Mary? Like my mom, like my mom Mary. She's like that. Andronicus, verse 7. Greet Andronicus in Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners who are of note among the apostles who also were in Christ before me." I render this as they were they were either well known to the apostles or to the apostles who were known.

I'm not sure. But this is, Andronicus is a male. The word junia could be male or female. Egalitarian commentators say that Junia was an apostle. She was a woman apostle, just like she was a woman preacher.

And they built an entire doctrine on actually what is not clear in the text. What is clear, what is clear is that women are to keep silent in the churches. Women are not to teach men, women are not to be teaching in the church. That's what the Bible says. And so if Junia was a woman, she wasn't an apostle.

And these were in prison with the apostle Paul. And imagine being in prison with Paul if Andronicus and Junia were indeed in prison with the Apostle Paul. You know, what we've learned from history, from Christian history, is that being in prison can be one of the most helpful things in your life. Think about John Bunyan. Think about Alexander Solzhenitsyn, he goes to prison and some Baptist pastors led him to Jesus Christ.

And then we have, well, before we leave, you know, am I willing to go to prison with a godly man? Am I willing to do that? And then Amplius, verse eight, greet Amplius, my beloved in the Lord. My beloved in the Lord. You know it's easy to view your fellow church members as a pain in the neck, but here Paul says he's my beloved in the Lord.

He says my, my beloved. It's very personal. He had personal affection. And then, Urbanus. Well, before we go to Urbanus, when you're with the people in this church, do they sense that they are beloved?

Do they sense that? Or do you carry yourself in a way that it's clear that they are beloved. Okay, Urbanus. Verse 9. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ.

So now you're talking about partnership and collaboration of being a fellow worker. The unity and the mutual accomplishment together is here and there. Here's what you have. I'm gonna call it shared strain shared strain working together again this is another load-bearing kind of a word here to be a fellow worker. Shared strain.

It takes strain, it takes strain actually from time to time. And we should exercise that strain and not be afraid of it. My dad he used to say, are you a worker or a shirker? That's what that's what urbanus was all about, he was a worker. And then statutes, I guess I'm pronouncing that right, my beloved, another affectionate term, my beloved.

Appellies, verse 10, greet Appellies Approved in Christ. Imagine having this title, approved. Approved in Christ. You know, you're in the family photo album. Approved in Christ.

He'd been tried. Something happened that tested him. Metal is tested by fire. And how are you being tested? You're put into a challenging situation.

And so the testing of your faith is gonna produce something hopefully it's endurance but he he was tested. You know it's interesting you know the Bible says let deacons be tested What does that mean? It means that you see them in situations where they are tested, and they actually act like deacons, and the same thing with elders. Let them be tested. They're tested in normal life.

It's not like taking a test in college. It's being tested in normal life. And then the household of Aristobulus. Greet those who are in the household of Aristobulus. So you have a household, Aristobulus was the head of the household, and But he's greeting those who are of the household.

We don't know exactly what that means. But it's possible that members of his family were converted, but he wasn't. We don't know. And then Herodian, verse 11, greet Herodian my countrymen. My kinsmen, my countrymen is the idea, indicating that Paul was either his true blood relative or that their relationship was like a relative because they were from the same town or the same region.

We are a spiritual family, and we have brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers that are our kinsmen. And then Narcissus, verse 11, greet those who are of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Some of the household of Narcissus were not in the Lord. Is that you maybe? Like you come to church here with your parents and you're not in the Lord.

Your parents are in the Lord, a couple of your siblings are in the Lord. Are you in the Lord? Do you believe that Jesus Christ came to save sinners? Do you believe that you are a sinner hopeless without the grace of God? Have you cast all of your fortune on Jesus?

Have you burned the ships of this world and gone ashore? Are you following him? Well there were some in the household of the narcissus who were in the Lord, implying that some weren't. You always have that in the church. And then, Trifina and Trifosa, verse 12, greet Trifina and Trifosa who labored in the Lord Greet the beloved Persis who labored much in the Lord.

So these two women Trifina and Trifosa, were ministering in the church. You know, they were they were women. They were dainty, but they were dangerous. They were serving. Okay, they were making a mark.

Women are not useless in the church of Jesus Christ. Many people believe that they were twin sisters and their names mean dainty and delicate. But that's not all. They were more than dainty and delicate. They labored in the Lord.

The daintiest can often be the most powerful. You know, this was, where were the parents? We don't know. Could have been just two sisters, sisters who were saved and they came and worshiped God in the church. I've seen that many times in my life.

Spurgeon, he said, you know what, if you want to read something really neat about this text, go read Charles Spurgeon. I'm going to quote him right now. Where were their brothers? Where was their father? Where was their mother?

I've often seen them in the church, two humble, earnest, faithful women, the lone ones of the family, and all the rest far off from God. Listen to what Spurgeon says. Oh brother, let not your sister go to heaven alone. Don't let your sister go to heaven alone. Spurgeon.

He says, greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, and mine. That is so interesting. Rufus had a mother and Paul says, she's my mother too. In the church you get a lot of spiritual fathers and mothers, grandmothers and things like that. That's what you get.

There's nothing like the church. Do you remember Patrick Henry's mother? Patrick Henry's mother used to take her son, Patrick Henry, to hear Samuel Davies, who was one of the great preachers of the Great Awakening and it was there that Patrick Henry saw what great communicators do and so Patrick Henry's mother they would walk to church and on the way home Patrick Henry's mother would make her son recite the sermon, even with all the flourishes and drama of Samuel Davy's sermons. She was a good mom. She was training her son.

Some of you are doing that. Spurgeon says, "'This is a case of a mother and her son. Paul when he calls her the mother of Rufus, adds, and mine, she had been like a mother to him. Welcome to the church. And then you have in verse 14 you have five more than five brethren greet a syncretist phlegon, Hermes, Patrabas, Hermes and the brethren who are with them.

It's like this little platoon maybe in the church. And those who are with them. Well, Paul couldn't remember all their names. So it doesn't matter. They're part of the church of Jesus Christ.

They don't need their names listed. Ordinary brethren, you never hear about again. Spurgeon, let us value all of Christ's servants It is better to be God's dog than to be the devil's darling. And then you have five, more than five, in verse 15, greet Philologus and Julia, Nerus, and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints who are with him. Spurgeon, I'll have to, you know, I already, I cut out so many Spurgeon quotes already, but I'm going to give you a couple more.

We have a brother and his sister near us and his sister. It is pleasant to see the stronger and the weaker sex thus associated. They grew in beauty side by side, brothers and sisters, Isn't that great? In the field of nature, and now they bloom together in the garden of divine grace. It's a sweet relationship of a godly brother and a sister.

They are as the rose and the lily in the same bouquet. Brothers and sisters, how are you with your brother and your sister? Are you like, do you love one another? Are you spurring one another on to love and good deeds. You brothers toward your sisters, your sisters toward your brothers.

You know your sisters, your sisters, do your brothers terrorize you? Shame on them. They should be protecting you and blessing you, you know. And then after all these names, He says this, greet one another with a holy kiss. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

And I think this is just code language for the way that you express love socially to one another. You know, I don't think he's talking about a literal kiss. You know, I had a friend who was joking with me, actually just this morning via email. He said, I'm a cessationist. I believe the holy kiss has passed away.

Well, not quite. It's a whole, it's holy, two qualities. It's holy. Whatever, whatever this greeting is, it's not, it's holy, it's not sensual, and it's a kiss. It's tangible.

It's an outward, visible show of affection. It's not hidden. It's the way that you look at one another. It's the way that you greet one another. You know, whether you're going to shake hands or fist bump or high five, you know, or do this, you know, corrupt and profane invention of the COVID revolution, the, you know, the elbow bump, you know.

You know, I remember when we used to, we used to greet one another with a holy kick like that during COVID, okay, forget that. That was ridiculous. We are not going to be, we're not going to be demonstrating the holy kiss. Okay. We're not going to do that.

Do I greet the brethren with a visible expression of loving kindness? That's it. And then finally in verse 16, the churches of Christ greet you. These are now giving us a window in expressions of affection and love between churches. It's only right that like-minded churches should have affection for one another.

You know, I had an opportunity to do that just like I wasn't here last Sunday because I was down in Pensacola at Jeff Pollard was retiring and I got to preach in their church and it was a joy. It was a joy to encourage that congregation and I've been down there several times before you know over the last 20 years probably and it was such a delight to bring greetings from here and also to stand and try to encourage that church who is no longer gonna have their pastor over the last over 20 years. And I got to recount so many of the things that God did through that man. It was a joy. But churches should be affectionate toward one another.

Okay, there it is. I love this passage of scripture, you can tell. It's a picture of vibrant church life, various contributions of various kinds of people all across the different categories of the generations and family structure. There are women who are ministering beautifully here in this church. There's an emphasis on what they do, not just a bunch of platitudes.

Specific names, almost all of them unknowns just like us. It's such a remarkable blessing. These were believers in Rome. These were people who used to be pagans. These were people who used to hate God and now they are beloved.

They are beloved of God and they are beloved of one another and they're brought into this new community called the Church of Jesus Christ. There's nothing like it in the world. What a blessing. And you know, this is, you know, I just think about all these people in this church who used to not be in a church. And it's a wonderful opportunity for us to really fan to flame a vision for reaching out and bringing in a harvest.

You know, we want to send people out once a month out into the neighborhoods. You know, we can hardly fit the people in this building right now and we're trying to lay plans of how do we do that how do we expand this building or build another one pray about that because that's that's big on our radar screen right now as elders and deacons and hey just with the people that are going to have children in this church we're gonna blow these doors out not too long. So keep having children, we'll figure out how to house them. The church, okay, the church is expansionistic, not static. The church is not minimalist, it's maximalist and that's how we should think about the future.

The future of this building and whatever we do on this property, whatever we are together. You know, you single women, go maximalist. You married couples go maximalist. You brothers and sisters go maximalist. Everybody go to the max.

You are serving the greatest institution that exists on the planet and it exists through nobody's like us Praise the Lord Let's pray Father I thank you Thank you for the for the joy it is to be included into your great and wonderful kingdom. What a kindness it is to bring us into the fellowship of the beloved. That we would work together and pray together and labor together, wear one another, wear ourselves out for good things. Amen.