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Continue in first Thessalonians this morning. If I can say Thessalonians didn't do my um charismatic tongue warm-ups this morning.
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And I decided that today was the day I'm going to try and pronounce an Italian word. So, you know. All right. I'm going to read just a couple of verses out of First Thessalonians. I do want to um move us forward. I've said a couple of times
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that I'm not going to extract every single bit of wisdom that there is in these books. Um, that's not the main thing I'm trying to do. I do want us to try to hold these books together. So, we're going to move forward, but I want
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to say just a couple of things as we move from chapter 1 to chapter 2. Again, chapter divisions are not inspired. I'm generally happy with the chapter divisions in in Thessalonians, except
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between four and five. Feels like it's kind of in the middle of a thought, but we'll talk about that when we get there. Um so I'm going to read the end of chapter
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1 here where uh verse 6 through 8 he says you also became imitators of us and of the Lord having received the word
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in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all believers in Macedonia and in Aaya. For the word of the Lord
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has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Aaya, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone forth so that we have no need to say anything. Um, this report goes ahead of
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them. We've talked about this a couple of times. There was one further point I wanted to bring out here. Um, this report goes ahead of of Paul and Silas and Timothy and their missionary
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journey. We see that that sort of advance of the witness of these people. And we see also that the unbelieving Jews, we read in uh Acts 17 that the unbelieving Jews of
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Thessalonica pursued them as far as Berea effectively uh trying to shut down what they observed in in Thessalonica. Um I think if we were to assign sort of
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motives to them, there was an element in which Paul was so successful at Thessalonica, they felt it necessary to pursue him to Berea to try to keep similar success from happening. Um
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that's how much this this witness is is going forth. But I think the thing I want to draw out here in particular is um that this
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success here is is a fulfillment of Matthew 5. Um again very familiar words to us all. But I want to compare with what we're we're looking at here in Thessalonians. Uh, of course, the the
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words of Jesus in the quote unquote sermon on the mount in which he says in Matthew 5 starting in verse uh 13, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be
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made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men and you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor does anyone
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light a lamp in order to put it under a basket, but on a lampst stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works
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and glorify your father who is in heaven. Now, I want to connect here with the fact that the next thing that Jesus talks about is the fulfillment of the law. Immediately after this, he has this
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this phrase that again, this is not our primary focus here, but I think it relates to what we're talking about. this phrase that has um given constrnation at least to the
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disciples who heard them at the time and frankly I think since then he says down here um
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I'm not going to read the whole section here but um he says in verse 20 just a few uh verses after this as he's talking about fulfilling the law he says for I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
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scribes and of the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Okay, so talking about for their perception at least the most holy people in their society unless your righteousness
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surpasses theirs, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. How is that even possible? And frankly, I think it's what we're trying to talk about here as we look at Paul's worldview throughout these books and Jud's, which is the
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fulfillment of the royal law. what we've talked about that we have a higher standard a standard higher than that of the Pharisees which is to love as we have been loved to forgive as we have
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been forgiven to walk uprightly that it transcends in a sense the the individual points not please don't misunderstand me not to the abolition of the law God does
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not permit murder okay the nature of God has not changed God does not take delight in lying we will see Paul's words in in sec uh chapter 2 of Thessalonians this morning that he takes
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care to say that he did not come to them deceitfully. Okay. The nature of God has not changed but we are held by this royal law to a higher standard and yet I
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will maintain a lower burden because we receive these things in the joy of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. So I I say again this section of of first Thessalonians, this sort of
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introduction that Paul gives is a uh a symbol or an emblem for us of a fulfillment of Matthew 5 that that light was shining before men in such a way that I would take this phrase here where
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he says uh in verse 9, they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had from you. It's a little bit clunky in the English because they tried to stick really close to the Greek. Effectively what he's saying is
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everywhere we go, people come up to tell us that they've talked to Thessalonians. They come up of their own accord to say, "Man, we heard about what happened in Thessalonica and how much that church is
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growing." That's the the meaning of that phrase that they of their own accord. It is really they themselves, but really what he's saying is they come to us to
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tell us that this has happened, that this is is going well. Um and so we see that fulfillment of this fulfillment how by being imitators imitators of the Lord
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and imitators of the disciples in every particular here. Um and I appreciated very much Abe's comments of of last week um not laying aside these things that
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Paul highlights out of chapter one. Their work of faith, their labor of love, their steadfastness and hope. But I also don't want to leave aside this one, the joy that they received with
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joy. He says specifically here in verse six that you became imitators of us and the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the
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Holy Spirit. Okay? So there is a joy of the spirit that transcends even the difficulties, the being hauled before the authorities, the persecution, the things they endured there. This joy is
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there. I want to make plain also what I think we can draw out of here and we will see going forward which is
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be careful how I say this because this is the sort of thing that always gets people to object to me. Um we bear some responsibility for this every time that we make some suggestion
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out of the scripture that uh you know there's some effort required of me. It's not uncommon that a hand immediately goes up and goes. It's the Holy Spirit's job to give me the joy. Okay, don't you
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dare suggest that I need to put my back into it. into it. Well, I am going to actually um I'm going to tell you what Paul is telling you here, which is
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to be an imitator. Okay, he says you became imitators of us. That requires an effort. Okay, that requires a change of behavior. That
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requires patterning yourself after those that you are imitating. Uh yes, the spirit is at work in them. Paul is never disconnecting this from the work of the spirit. Neither is he laying aside the
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effort that is required of them to imitate, to walk, to be steadfast, to be laboring in love, to be continuing in faith. These things go together. They
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are not separated. And I would challenge you to find a place where he separates them if you want to maintain that. I don't know that anyone here is going to maintain that for me. But what I what I
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don't mean is that we're happy happy all the time. Time time, right? But I do say that taking joy in the Lord is incumbent on us.
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Okay? That examining him, I would point you straight back to the Psalms. Are there psalms that are ruminations on the terribleness of the world and the
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advance of the wicked? Yes. Are there psalms that are full of wonder and joy and excitement at what God has done? Yes. Meditate not only on the psalms but
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in the way that the psalmist does on what God is doing in the world around him. Okay. So there's an element here of enduring in hope that we need to put our back into it that we need to put forward
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some effort in taking joy in what God is doing and not just assume that it's going to sort of come to us. Uh Abe first and then Aaron.
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So I think We we will actually see that as we move forward here in Thessalonians. So I do want to move to chapter two because he does actually highlight somewhat um what the result of his work there was and what he saw in them that caused him this. So that's
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that's an excellent question. We're going to move into chapter two and talk about some of that. But frankly the major point just to sum it up really quick and you can tell me whether or not you agree once we read it is their
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response to the word. What caused him to say this? What caused this light to shine forward? What caused this witness of them to go forward is they responded
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to that word with joy, with diligence, with steadfastness that like they could not get enough of God's word and the proclamation of the fact that Christ had come, that the Messiah has arrived.
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Okay. So, Okay. So, let's look at that as we go forward here. Um here. Um he does also though and I don't want to leave chapter one without without indicating this uh quickly
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at the end here he says um he says specifically they report what kind of reception we had from you how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and
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true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead that is Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come. So,
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two distinctives there, that they turn to the living and true God, and that they eagerly anticipate the coming of Jesus, the end of the age, the consummation of the ages. Those things
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are the things that he ties up that initial address with as he's saying, here's what we hear from others about you. Okay. So, uh, again, just quickly
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while we're here, the words that he's using there, um, the English translation is not bad by any means, but I don't know that it it highlights exactly what he's saying, which is he says, you you turned to
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serve a living and true God. It's the exact same wording that you would find in other place places in the Greek that say enslaved. You could read it as you have been enslaved to the living and
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true God. That kind of serving, that kind of of single-mindedness. I'm sorry, Erin, you had your hand up and I didn't call you before.
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um the the question is uh when that joy does not come to us easily when we find ourselves to use your phrase weak in that joy. Do we lean on the rest of the body? And I think the answer is is emphatically yes. emphatically yes. Uh that's another element that I intend
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to draw out of here is the amount that Paul has to say in these books about the joy he receives from seeing his fellow believers walking according to faith.
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Okay? The joy and the encouragement. This man in the midst of his trials, this man in the midst of of being battered and buffeted is excited to see
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their faith, their joy, their walk, their steadfastness. Um, so 100% I think we lean on on the rest of the body in practical terms, yes, but also in the
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more sort of spiritual focus. Does that make sense? make sense? I think so. Are you saying that to see these things as a person.
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at least in my neurotic introspective self it all comes down right high PSI on my head right but is it not us not me I I I I
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say yes with the full acknowledgement that there's there's an element in which we're never rid of me right we're we're never we're never not ourselves in the assembly there is an element of personal
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responsibility in all of these things. But I will maintain throughout here um I had a reference last week that I didn't bring with me again this morning struck by another section out of Acts where the
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the very corporate language he's using in a verse that I think sometimes gets applied very individually. Um Paul is almost always talking to people as a
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body not as individuals. Occasionally he highlights individual things but even here we talked about out of this chapter one he's not even talking about this missionary journey as I Paul he's
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talking about it as we who came through so very much these things are taken in a in the round of of the people of God together not as much individually um so
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yes I would say there's there is definitely an element that continges upon that's not the right words way to say that but I'm going to go with it anyways. On the body um to to encourage
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one another to be as a body full of joy despite the fact that there are individual elements and and hardships and there are times where a body is grieved. I mean those things are true
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and and real again this is not saying that this is uh like all the time and any kind of sadness is sinful. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that there is an attitude here that Paul
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is highlighting with excitement that ought to also be a pattern for us. Um, and this I connect this back to uh Abee's comment there
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where he does make a a kind of equivalence with the Lord. And that's exactly right because he says in another place does he not um imitate me as I imitate Christ. Right? So he is looking
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forward to the Lord and saying as I am moving forward in this direction move forward with me. You can imitate me because I am faithfully imitating the Lord. Um there's a lot more we could say
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there. The other part of this that that sometimes gets highlighted out of the Greek which I think is useful to us and I'm not going to butcher the word here but this where it says um imitators is
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is actually literally the same word that we have in Hebrews where he says the pattern the pattern of those things above. Um it it comes out of the sort of idea of craftsmanship.
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Um one of the commentators said you could even take it as far as almost like a a die that strikes a shape. um that that there is a pattern and every time it's pressed down it's making that
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thing. Okay. So there is a consistency in what is coming out of that imitation.
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I do want to say here though because I I hope before the end of the our time together that we move to chapter 2 this other distinctive here which is the the anticipation of the Lord's return.
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They are geared towards this second coming. They are anticipating. They are looking with eagerness. We know now of course where we live several thousand well couple thousand I
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should say couple thousand years after this. Um that obviously the second I I assume nobody got raptured on Wednesday by the way. I don't know if you knew that was supposed to happen, but um
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yeah, apparently it was Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how you count the dates. It's kind of like where the plumber tells you I'll be there between 1 and three. He was coming on Wednesday or Thursday was going to maybe be the rapture. It didn't happen.
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Yes, a significant portion of the United States population. Well, I say the significant portion. I have never opened Tik Tok and I never will, but
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occasionally things escape containment from it and they they cross my my dash. Um, this was one of those things because apparently there was a not insignificant
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portion of the United States population who were wound up about the fact that it was supposed to be a rapture on Wednesday. Anyhow, that's not what I mean. Okay. mean. Okay. The question that comes out of all of
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these though are are we effectively jaded or deluded saying like the I'm probably going to believe you know live to 80 85 and die without seeing the
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Lord's return. Lord's return. He hasn't returned in the last 2,000 years. Why should I anticipate his return in the next 70? Are we in the right attitude that way?
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one of the commentators had a phrase here that I think is is helpful to us and and I I will pick this theme up again actually because um the end of chapter 4, the beginning of chapter 5 in
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first Thessalonians here he Paul drills down into this much more. So we're going to follow his lead there and drill into it more at that section. But the phrase he said was um that the Thessalonians
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experienced the kind of conversion that only a living esqueological hope can produce. Okay. So the argument here is that we too should have an an a gearing
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an intention an anticipation of what God is doing and what he has promised to do. And I would actually throw out a plug here for the Thursday night study.
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Um, as Chuck has been talking about what God did in the Exodus, the frankly cosmic conflict that we see in the Exodus and how it relates to the current
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spiritual warfare, the fact that God has told us in his word that he is at war with the powers, that he will bring in his kingdom, that he will be victorious and establish it upon the earth. These
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are the things that we are ought to be geared toward and anticipating and excited about no less than those who lived through the miracles
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slashcursesplagues of the Exodus. Okay. So again, we'll follow Paul's lead there unless somebody has a particular question there. But we are connected to all of this
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in that spiritual warfare. Uh several weeks ago when we started there was a question about you know why why do we have the um admonitions from Paul and
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he'll give us another one here in Thessalonians to be armed to be armored to be equipped for spiritual warfare to what end to what purpose well we are part of God's
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army we are in his hands to fight on behalf of righteousness and holiness and again follow with me we're early days here But he's going to tell us through
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first and second Thessalonians, through Titus, um what it is to do that, what it is to walk uprightly, what it is to be that before the world. So follow along,
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please. One more statement here. Um he finishes this with uh raised raised him from the dead. That is Jesus who
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rescues us from the wrath to come. Well, hold on a minute. I thought the wrathful God was the Old Testament one. What's going on here? Um, I apparently
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don't read liberal enough commentators because one of the other commentators had to tell me that there are some of them that apparently maintain that there is no judgment that is full of wrath
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that is coming to us. This is about internal conflict in sanctification. That's the wrath that they're enduring. No, don't need to go there. Um,
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this wrath here is of course the the judgment. It is God's response to evil. It is part of that esqueological hope actually that
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that wrath will come to fully and finally punish those things that deserve it. Okay, this is one of those things that you can pull out of the Psalms. His
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uh ernation over the fact that he does not see the wicked punished in their lifetime. Well, we have an es esqueological hope that relates to that too. Okay. So, don't throw that aside.
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All right. There are no questions there. I'm going to read. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
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Yeah. Um, I appreciate that point. I I'm going to argue as we go forward that we have both. Um,
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I do think that actually There's a primary element here. Um, I'm not going to rewrite my outline, but I think at least three of the things where I sort of gave headings for the chapters we're going through involve an encouragement to fellow believers or to your teachers
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through faith. Uh, 100% the imitation and the the faithfulness here has that aspect to your fellow believers. Um,
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again, you know, Paul is talking about he's gone to Berea, okay? He's he's I don't know how many miles away and there are people coming up to him saying we heard about this. Who are those people?
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Those people will be in the synagogue in the marketplace people who believe. Okay. So yes, it is 100% uh an element to your fellow believers. But I will also maintain as I I did at the beginning that it is a fulfillment of
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Matthew 5. This is a light before the world. And and as Jesus says, in those things where they slander you, okay, as as as what? Doing good, being
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righteous, okay, that that you are are upright in these things. Let's read chapter 2 because I think it actually has something to say to us here. Um Paul is writing, of course, to the
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Thessalonians, but he seems to be addressing the charge of the unbelieving Jews from Thessalonica as he states his case here in chapter 2. Chapter 2, beginning in verse one. You
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yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to
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you the gospel of God amid much opposition. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit. But just as we have been
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approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering
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speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed, as God is our witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, neither from you or from others, even though as
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apostles of Christ, we might have asserted our authority. But we proved to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you, we
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were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives because you had become very dear to us. to us. For you recall, brethren, our labor and
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hardship, working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you. We proclaim to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses and so is God as to how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly
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we behave towards you believers. Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children so that you would walk in a manner
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worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you receive the word
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of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which performs its work in you who believe. For you, brethren, became
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imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did at the hands of the Jews, who
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both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they might be saved,
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with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost. But we, brethren, having been taken away
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from you for a short while in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, more
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than once, and yet Satan hindered us. For who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? For you are our glory and joy.
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I'm not going to be able to get everything out of this in the next 15 minutes. So, come prepared to talk about chapter 2 some more next week. Paul definitely has in mind the
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accusations of those who were against him here.
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Uh, one wrote his his statement here at the beginning is is a masterful understatement. our coming to you was not in vain.
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He's just spent a bunch of time talking about how fruitful it was and how far that has gone. So, yeah, it was not in vain. Um, I do think, well, I'll say what I said early on, which is I think there's an element here in which maybe
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Paul is almost astonished in a good way at what God is doing among them because of how little time he had in Thessalonica. Um, and he says, of course, here he he
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he reinforces the fact that he he wasted no time while he was there. Okay? He spent all of it sharing the gospel with them, working for his own maintenance. We'll talk about that. Um, that no one
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had to give him any charity. He was working night and day to support them. And yet he never begrudged anyone the time to discuss the gospel, to encourage them, to walk with them, to do those
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things. Um, so yeah, definitely not in vain. Um the actual phrasing here uh you might translate a little more as um our
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visit to you being no failure. It is in fact in the perfect tense meaning not only did it have a result, it has an ongoing result. Um I'm not a grimarian,
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but the perfect tense is those things that are continuing. Right? So uh in the Greek it's in the perfect tense. So it's it's not just the it had this result. It's having the result. It's continuing
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here in Thessalonica or in Berea. I'm observing that result, right? So much as. In so much as, yeah, would be a reasonable way to say that. Um, all right. So, here's why I bothered
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to write this word on the board, and I don't know if it helps anybody else. He says here that they were bold in their preaching. Okay. Um, he says, "Uh,
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shoot, I've lost my place here. I'm jumping ahead a little bit." Um, in the in the section here, he says that uh that they were bold to speak to them in
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uh why can I not find it here? Sorry. Uh it's in here in verse two. Uh, we had boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God among much opposition. Um,
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I put up the word here spritzer. Maybe it's Italian. Okay, I didn't I didn't properly break up my syllables. Sorry. Um, the problem
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here is in the Greek, this is one word. Uh, as a number of the commentators pointed out, it means a couple of things simultaneously, and we don't have an English word that does the same thing. I
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was already familiar with this word from things that happened to me in architecture school. Um it it's another not English word that means these things at the same time
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which is it's a form of comfort and confidence at the same time. It's the idea of like this is where you live. Um it's a complete lack of artfulness.
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Okay. So there's a sense um this often gets applied apparently because they're Italians to fashion. So the idea, you know, you've met people who have put on clothes that they are not comfortable in
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and you can tell that they're not comfortable in them. Spread is the opposite of that. Like you live in that this is the place where you are comfortable and confident and and it
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like projects out of you. That's what that word means. And I think that's what the Greek here is saying when he says we had boldness in our God to speak to you. Like he's just said, I didn't come to
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you lying. I didn't come to you with a seductive message. I didn't come to you in artfulness. Um, one of the other words here actually has to do with like angling, literally like fishing. I'm not
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baiting you into anything. Um, he's saying like I I live here. This is where I am confident and comfortable because God has entrusted this message to me. That's what he means we're here when he
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says boldness. Okay, so speaking to them in complete freedom of speech, completely at home. um it includes the idea of both without fear and complete confidence. So that helps you make a
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little more of that um in your own reading of it. This is not the only place where this appears of course I think many of you could think of other examples. But every time this word in here appears in the New Testament is
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actually connected with preaching. Okay? So everywhere we find this in the New Testament Greek is connected with preaching. the idea of this sort of comfortable confidence in it again as he
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says here because you received it not as my words but for what it is the word of God this is why he stands this way I think it's important to point out that
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No, I appreciate that. Um Uh thank you for saying so. You know, he says here actually um actually um uh they they had come from Philippi. I didn't go back to to read us out of Acts about everything that happened to them in Philippi, but it was not a nice time.
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Um you know, he was scorged. He was locked up. Um there's an element in which, you know, many of us mortals maybe would have gone away from that and gone, maybe I won't make such a big stir
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in the next town I go to. And Paul says, "We just came from Philippi where we endured all of this and we came to you in boldness, right? I'm not hiding this. I'm not being deceitful. I'm not I'm not putting this lamp under a basket." Um,
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we did actually talk when I was in seminary, we had a rhetoric class and we actually went to the section in second, is it in second Corinthians where he says, "We didn't come to you with
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subtleness of speech." No, 1 Corinthians 12, I think. Um anyways he um I don't remember us talking about this section out of Thessalonians but we we were made
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to answer the question effectively is like are we even allowed to take this rhetoric class? Do we need to learn how to speak here or do we need to be as Paul completely artless? Do we take this to mean right? So we spent weeks doing
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this. The point here is that for both of them he's saying I didn't do this in great rhetoric and subtleties of speech and and you know carefully crafted arguments. I came to you in confident,
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comfortable, standing firm on the word of God, knowing that I do not yield in any respect because this is the word of God. Um God. Um uh another thought that occurred to me
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in this section and we probably need to to finish with this though is many years ago I remember um one of Chuck's teachings in particular he talked about the fact that that often people will get
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um you know saved and come into a church and that church uh works really quickly towards getting you turned around and sent back out to procilitize to other
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people. You've got to have this kind of boldness in the word before you go out there slinging the gospel around. Okay? You need to be here where Paul is. He even says specifically that he was
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effectively tested and entrusted by God with this message. Okay? He's not a novice. Okay? We don't take the people straight out of boot camp and send them on the kind of missions that the special
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forces are sent out to do. Right? You need more training. You need more experience. You need more understanding there. You can't be a novice and and launch straight out there. Now, of course, the Holy Spirit can do many
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things. You have examples in the acts of people who were fairly recently saved who were sent out. But I think this is important. Uh James first and then
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Mhm. Yeah, absolutely. It It needs no dressing up. It is. It is. It stands on its own. Exactly. Very good,
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So this is uh I'll I'll wrap this up here because the context actually in which I remember this statement was was a discussion effectively of of even doing what gets termed apologetics. Okay? Like learning all of these arguments and sort of almost clever
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tricks to trap people so that they have to admit that what you're saying is true. That's not what we're trying to do here. Okay? What we're trying to do here is to stand on the word. Now, it requires
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wisdom. This is the point I'm trying to make. And and this is what I think we can draw out of Paul is it requires wisdom to know how to react or to respond to different people that he does
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approach people in in individual ways. Um Mark, you had your hand up. Just thinking about
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Right. There is there is work to be done. Absolutely. So, so I appreciate that very much because I think that that does help sum up what we're trying to say, which is um I'm not I'm not by any means
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discouraging anyone from witnessing. What I do mean is that you need to not be halfbaked. Okay? You need to uh what's the phrase? Make make your
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calling sure. I can't remember exactly how that verse goes. Calling an election sure. Um, be as Paul was confident in this in your I mean he
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was the Pharisee of Pharisees, was he not? And no one knew the scriptures better than him. I'm not saying we have to attain to that level. But we do need to understand the word. We do need to have a complete and rounded handling of
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it before we go out and and try to deploy it in in preaching of the gospel. We'll talk more about the gospel next week because he has a lot to say here. Um, any other questions or
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comments before I close. All right. Well, let's close in prayer this morning and uh we we'll head
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Father, we do thank you for your word. We thank you for the the message and the witness that we have here from the apostle. Uh we thank you for giving us so much of it that we can study and and
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enjoy and and frankly joy in. Lord, we do ask that you would be at work in our hearts that we would see it as it is for the word of God that it would be joy in
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our hearts. That we would taste and see that the Lord is good. We thank you for giving us this time, this place, this body to gather together with, to sing praises to your name, to
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pray together, to hear your word preached. Lord, we ask that as we do these things that it would be a joy in your sight. That these things would be for the edification of the body. That
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your glory would be in in whatever way that happens magnified by our praises and our prayers and our joining together around the word. We ask
