I Long To Come See You - Romans 1:8-13

1:08John says, No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. And he says, Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. That was Jesus, Peter, James, Paul, and John, all saying the same thing, that we need to love each other. This is a huge command. We need to love each other earnestly. We need to abound in it. We need to love indeed and truth. And these are familiar commands to us. We know how important it is. We know that there is this tight connection between our love for God and our love for our church, our love for our brothers and sisters that we're here gathered with.

2:08And all of us want to obey these commands, but we can be really bad at it. I think that you would agree with me. Sometimes we don't know the most loving thing to do. Sometimes we do know something loving to do and we're too lazy to do it. Or we feel too awkward to do it, or whatever. But we can be bad at loving each other. In the Galatian church, it had gotten so bad that Paul says this: he warns them: if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you're not consumed or devoured completely by one another. If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. They were not being loving. Paul says, watch out. You're going to consume one another if you keep it up.

3:06In the Thessalonian church, this was the opposite of the truth. If you remember, the letter to the Thessalonians, they loved each other a lot. Paul says that they were taught by God on how to love each other, and he commends them for it, and yet he still prays for them that they would abound in love, that they should have even more love for one another. So every church should be praying for this. Every church, including our own, should be working hard for this, to have this love among our members.

3:40So how can we love each other better? That's our question for today. Our text today is Romans 1, verses 8 through 13. And in this passage, we aren't going to get this list of commands to step through. We're not even going to get a list of doctrines that's detailed out for us. Instead, what we're reading today is a personal note from Paul to the church in Rome. It's a personal note. And a lot of times, in our own personal Bible reading, we kind of hurry past this part, right, and think it has nothing to do with us. But at this church, we believe that every single part of scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for us, is valuable to us. And so we study every single part. And today, as we read this, I think that the main thing that we're going to see is the apostles' great love for this church in Rome that he's never even met yet.

4:42Paul, as he officially represents the Lord, is copying the Lord in the great love that the Lord Jesus showed. He's not being artificial or fake. Paul is not being awkward. He is not flattering them to puff them up. Instead, as we study this passage, we are going to see four expressions of genuine kindness. Four expressions of loving kindness. Here they are. Sincere thanksgiving, unceasing prayer, mutual service, and a thoughtful clarification. Four expressions of genuine kindness, sincere thanksgiving, unceasing prayer, mutual service, and a thoughtful clarification. And as we look at these things, I hope that we can all get excited about getting this front row seat to, number one, peek behind the curtain of Paul's ministry and see how he interacts with all of these people, but also a front row seat of an example of how the saints should love each other. How do we treat one another? How do we talk to one another? If we have been bad at loving each other, then today we have. An example that we can follow. So study it with me today. Look at Romans 1, verse 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

6:18For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to become, to be unaware, brothers. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. Pray with me.

7:13Father, I pray that you'd cause us to come to this text with humble hearts, hearts that are eager to learn everything we can about you, hearts that are eager to learn how to love one another better. I pray, Lord, that you would give us a contrite spirit as we study this text, that we could isolate sins in our life and root them out, that we could pull up weeds, that we could identify the places where we are not kind to one another, we're not loving to one another, and fix those places.

7:56We thank you, Lord, for the apostle. We thank you for this passage. We pray that we would humbly study it and learn from it this morning. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The first expression of kindness that we see is sincere thanksgiving for the Roman church. Sincere thanksgiving. Look at verse 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. He begins his words of encouragement. He begins his personal note by saying, I am really thankful for you. I am really thankful for you. We hear who he thanks. He says, I thank my God. I thank my God. We hear how he thanks God. He says, I thank my God through Jesus Christ. And so it's through Jesus Christ that we have access to the Father, that we have forgiveness so that we can come to him and pray to him. We hear what he's thankful for. He's thankful for the Romans themselves, the Roman Christians. Paul recognizes that God has done this special work in their life, this unique work in their life, almost spontaneously, and he gives God all the credit for it. And finally, he even tells us why he's so thankful. He's thankful because their faith is proclaimed in all the world. Their faith, the Roman church's faith, is proclaimed in all the world.

9:34So across all the Asian churches that Paul has been working with, maybe in Israel, in all these places, Paul is going, he's hearing about the faith of the Roman church. When was the last time you heard that commendation of a church? That church is full of faith. That church trusts in the Lord. That's what he's saying about the Roman church. That's what they're famous for. They trust the Lord. They're full of faith. Paul is thankful for this, but he's also thankful that this proclamation is going out. It's an encouraging fact to all of these Christians. They're hearing about it in all the world. They're saying, you know, over in Rome, the biggest city in the world, there are Christians there. And the apostles haven't even been there yet. But that church is full of faith and it's growing. And they're encouraging each other with these words. The reports are going out. We'll hear later in the letter that he says this in Romans 16, 19. Paul says, For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you. And so the Romans are famous for their faith, and they're famous for their obedience. Everyone talks about how the Roman church is obedient. And that makes sense. You remember last week we saw that little phrase, the obedience of faith, and how those two things go together. So that makes a lot of sense. But the Roman church is famous for its faith and obedience. And I think it's just important that we take a moment to remember how unique this church is. For the rest of the letters, on the one hand, you have some churches that are founded by the Apostle Paul himself, like the church in Corinth.

11:21He's there, he's teaching, but by the time they receive their letter, it's not good anymore. They haven't become famous for their faith. They become famous for their divisions. They become famous for their immorality. Where the Galatian church, founded by the Apostle, but now is in the danger, the Galatian churches, now they're in danger of following a false gospel. On the other hand, you have churches like the Thessalonians that we mentioned earlier. They were founded by the Apostle, and they're doing well.

12:00In fact, the same phrase is used for them that they are famous for their faith. Their faith is proclaimed, just like the Romans. But the Roman church is completely different from either one of those groups, right? It's not a church that was founded by the apostle and now is doing poorly. It's not a church that was founded by the apostle and now is doing well. It's a church that grew on its own and on its own, under the Lord's good hand, has become this amazing church, this faithful church, this trusting church.

12:34You can see why Paul would give thanks all the time. You could see why he would thank God because it's God who formed and established this church. And as we look at this, I think that it's only appropriate that we copy Paul's example in this. The way that he's giving thanks for these saints, I think we can copy. None of us are apostles. None of us have this worldwide mission where we are overseeing churches all across the globe and we're writing letters to them. None of us do that. But all of us have other Christians around us.

13:13Do you see faith in someone in the church? Do you see people trusting in the Lord? Do you see kids in our church that are growing and doing well and showing fruit after trusting in the Lord? I just encourage you to take. The time to be consistent and thank the Lord for them. Thank the Lord that they have faith. Thank the Lord that they're doing well. Give glory to God as you recognize his work in their life. That's what Paul is doing. He's thanking God. He's not thanking the Roman church. He's thanking God for the work that's being done in the Roman church.

13:55The second way we can copy Paul in this, and you have to be a little more careful with this one, but the second way we can copy Paul is: feel free to encourage your brothers and sisters in this. If you have been consistently thanking God for some musicians in the church that have been blessing you, that have been leading you to God's throne in worship, if you have been thanking God for Pastor Tom, or you've been thanking God for a servant in the church that's doing something unnoticed, then let them know. You can encourage them. You have to be careful. That's why I said this. You have to be careful because this can come from a heart of flattery, right? This can come from a wicked heart that you're just trying to puff them up so that they'll puff you up, or you're just trying to get them to think that you're super spiritual since you're always thanking God for them or something like that, right? You have to watch over your own heart. But I just encourage you that if you are in the regular habit of being really grateful for somebody in the church, and you should be in that habit, if you are. In the habit of thanking God, then I encourage you to encourage them. Paul is displaying genuine kindness here as he lets them know that he's thankful.

15:11So encourage your brothers and sisters in humility, but encourage them, even your spouse, maybe especially your spouse. Encourage your brothers and sisters and give thanks for them. The second expression of genuine kindness is unceasing prayer. Unceasing prayer. Look at verse, we'll start in verse 8 again. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Verse 9, For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit and the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. He says, without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers. They are always on his mind when he's praying, and he mentions them all the time.

16:13What an encouragement. You know, how many of us pray like that? How many of us can say that anything is always on our mind, or anyone is always on our mind when we pray? Let this be an encouragement to you to be faithful in your prayers. To remember your brothers and your sisters over and over and over and over in prayer, to be praying for their life. And by the way, like Matt announced earlier, if your Wednesday nights are open this summer, come to the prayer meeting. Let that be a way that you are consistently praying for your brothers and sisters every week. Keep it up. Well, as you see in verse 9, and this isn't all that he's praying, that he says about his prayers. At the beginning of verse 9, if you look, he says, For God is my witness. For God is my witness. Have you guys ever said that before? God is my witness. He's saying, this is really true. I really am praying for you. And he's never met the Romans. And probably no one else is sitting there listening to every one of Paul's prayers as he prays in the closet or wherever he's praying. But Paul knows that God hears his prayers. And so he says, God is my witness. God knows that I have been praying for you over and over and over and over.

17:39Not only that, God is the one whom Paul serves. Paul is God's servant in verse 9, whom I serve with my spirit and the gospel of his son. That word for service is the word for like temple service or worship service, things like that. Like the priests and the Levites used to do, their service. It's the same word that's used in verse 25 of this chapter when he says, I appeal to you, therefore, or sorry, verse 25 of this chapter, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served, that's the word, worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. So it has to do with who they're worshiping. They're not worshiping their creator anymore. They are worshipfully serving the creature. We also hear the same word in chapter 12, verse 1. For many of you, this is a familiar verse. He says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship, your spiritual service. That's the same word. So the Levite's spiritual service was in the temple. The world's spiritual service is to the creature rather than the creator. He says the Christian's spiritual service is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord, to renew our minds instead of being conformed to the world. And Paul is saying that his spiritual service, we see in verse 9, is the gospel of his Son, whom I serve with my spirit and the gospel of his son. That is Paul's sacrifice. That is his worshipful service that he is serving for the Lord. The gospel of Jesus Christ. And he works hard for it. He says, I serve with my spirit. So he's not just doing this outward service. He's not just going through emotions. All of him is in service to the Lord. He is wholeheartedly devoted to this. So Paul is God's special servant. God is Paul's witness. And the Romans can be assured by this relationship that Paul really is praying and that God really is hearing Paul's prayer. They can be encouraged. And what's the main topic of his prayer? Look at verse 10. Without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. He's saying, in any way possible, if there is any way I can get to you, that's what I've been praying for. If there's anything that can happen within God's will where I can get to you, I have been praying for that. He says that he's been wanting this for a long time, that I may at last succeed in coming to you. So he's been traveling throughout the Asian churches. He's been traveling throughout all these Gentile nations, planting churches, helping churches grow. But he has been longing for a long time now. He's been longing to come to Rome. If you remember last week, we looked at how he asks them to pray for this same thing. He says, I'm. Always praying about this, that I could come see you. And he says the same thing to them. I want you to pray about this too. I want to see you. I long to see you. Pray about this. Pray that I may be delivered from the hostile men in Jerusalem so that I can come to you.

21:22And he will go. He will get to Rome, but it might not be in the way that the Roman Christians expected. Like we read today in the scripture reading, that story is pretty unique, isn't it? Have you ever heard anything like that? The prophet Agabas. As Paul is getting nearer to Jerusalem and he's coming, the prophet Agabas takes his belt, takes Paul's belt and binds himself, binds his hands and feet. And he says this: Thus says the Holy Spirit, this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And Paul does go to Jerusalem and they do bind him and they do deliver him to the Gentiles. And that ends up being how he gets to Rome. He is put in prison there and he is sent there.

22:16Now, you might be wondering, does this really fit in our theme of Paul being kind to them? Yes, he's praying for them, and it's kind of him to pray for them, but he says, That the real reason why he's praying for them is that he wants to see them. So, is this just selfishness in Paul? Does this really fit something kind that he's doing? Well, in a couple verses, Paul will admit that there is at least a little bit of selfishness in there. He wants to be blessed by them. But he's very clear that the main reason why he longs to see them is he wants to serve them. He wants to serve them. He wants to bless them. And this leads us to our next expression of genuine kindness: mutual service. Mutual service. Look at verse 11. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.

23:21That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I long to see you that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. Paul is desperate to see them. He's longing for it. And the reason is that he wants to serve them. He wants them to be blessed. Now, in some of our translations, it uses the word impart, and that can kind of give like this picture of a king, you know, imparting blessings upon the lowly. That's not the attitude that he's having here. It's more like share. He's trying to share these. Gifts. He knows that God has given him gifts that encourage and build up churches. And instead of hoarding that to himself or instead of squandering those gifts, Paul is saying he wants to share those so that that church can be blessed. He's not being selfish. It's the opposite. He doesn't even have anything specific in mind. He's got a list of gifts, but he's not even addressing, he uses the word some, kind of saying he doesn't know what gifts it's going to be yet. He's not addressing a specific issue. He just knows that he's got gifts from the Lord that build up churches. And in any way, when he gets there, he wants that church to be blessed by him. He wants to serve them. He wants to bless them.

24:46And it doesn't just go one way. He goes on to be frank with them and say, I want this to go both ways. Yes, I'm going to share my gifts with you and bless you through the Lord. But also, he says, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. Isn't that neat? That we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. What is so encouraging about being around someone else who has faith? Why is that an encouragement? If the Romans have great faith, and if that's already encouraging people all over the world, now we're going to be able to do that. Paul says he wants to be there. He wants to be encouraged by them and their faith. What's so encouraging about seeing someone else's faith? Well, I think many of us, though we couldn't quite put our finger on it, I think many of us have experienced that. Being encouraged by someone else's faith. Those kinds of things can be contagious. Just like maybe on a battlefield, cowardice can be contagious. Once one guy starts running, everybody starts running. Or bravery can be contagious. Once somebody starts running the right way, everybody can start running the right way, right?

26:06Faith can be encouraging like that to those around us. If we are trusting God in a trial, it'll help our brothers and sisters to do the same thing, to trust God in the same trial. When we see joyful faith in our brothers' or sister's life, it causes us to be encouraged in our faith and helps us to trust the Lord with joy. And notice that even though Paul is an apostle, have you ever thought about this? Even though Paul is an apostle, he is not above being encouraged by them. This new church that's been growing in the faith, Paul, certainly more mature than them, as one selected by the Lord and trained for those years in Damascus, still.

27:00He is going to be blessed by them. And so let that be a challenge to all of us, right? All of us, with the exception of, I guess, one person in the room. All of us have someone in this room who's younger than us in the faith. All of us have people around us that haven't been Christians for as long as us, or maybe they haven't matured as quickly. And unless you, well, and when you're around those people, you can't take this arrogant attitude and think that you are not going to be blessed by them, by their faith. Paul was clear that he was going to be blessed by these believers and he was going to bless them. And I just challenge you to have that same kind of attitude when you come to church, when you are with the saints in the assembly or when you are with them in your homes, to be ready to bless and serve, but also to be ready to be blessed and served by those around you. Don't consider yourself above it. That word for make firm, always in my prayers, asking somehow by God's will, I may at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That word strengthen or to make firm. It means like to establish, to be fixed and persevering and strong. That's what Paul's goal is. That's his goal for the Roman Christians, that they have been excelling in the faith and growing in the faith. Everybody knows it in the whole world.

28:30But he wants them to be persevering and strong. That's why he wants to come and share these gifts with them. So, how often is that your goal when you come to our assembly? How often is that your hope when you're at a fellowship meal? On your way to church, do you ever think to yourself, I want to serve somebody at church, I want to strengthen somebody, I want to be encouraged by their gifts. None of us is an apostle, none of us had the spiritual gifts that Paul has.

29:17And though we can't strengthen each other in the same way Paul did, we are still supposed to, as body parts, as members of the same body, we are still supposed to serve each other in our different roles and our different ways. We should long to strengthen each other like Paul longs to see them. And so, many of you, many of us, many of you are thinking about church in the wrong way. It's not just an event when we gather. It's not something just to kill time. We are here to strengthen and bless each other. And it's not just one person, it's not just the. Musicians. It's not just the preacher or something like that that everyone else is strengthened by. It's that we are all supposed to be strengthening each other. A lot of times we quote, you guys have heard this familiar passage in Hebrews 10:25 that we should not neglect to meet with one another, but sometimes we neglect to read the rest of the context of that, right? So, this is Hebrews 10:24. First, he says, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So, the command is not just to meet together, just to meet together, right? The command, the reason why we meet together, is to stir each other up and love each other, or stir each other up to love and good works, to encourage one another even more and more as the day draws near. So, shame on us if we come to church absent-mindedly.

31:08Let's work hard to bless others and to be blessed by the gifts of the other members of this church. And let's be like Paul and work to show this kindness to one another. So, we have seen Paul's sincere thanksgiving, we've seen his unceasing prayer, we've seen his desire. For mutual service or encouragement. And finally, we see this kind of unique, this thoughtful clarification, something we don't really see in Scripture that much. He's genuinely kind to them by going out of his way to clarify something. Look at verse 13. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. So Paul wants them to know, in case they're feeling neglected or in case they're feeling like the apostle doesn't long to see them, he says, I do not want you to be unaware that I have often planned to come to you. I've often intended to come to you. Maybe there are even these concrete plans that got thwarted, but he has been wanting over and over and over to come to them. You could see that this is such a kind thing for him to say. He's being a pastor to them. He's being kind to them.

32:33He wants to make sure that they're not discouraged by these lack of visits. And I think that, at least in general principle, I think that this is something else that we can copy, right, in our fellowship with one another, at least in general principle, that we can do this same kind of thing. Many of us have had awkward interactions with other people. In the church. Maybe we've actually sinned against someone else in the church and we need to go and ask their forgiveness. But I think a lot of times also we've just done something that we didn't intend to do, something foolish. We mixed up their name or we said something insensitive or something like that. And I think if we are going to be devoted to this kind of love that we're to have for each other, I think that there is a genuinely kind way to clear the air. Maybe it is awkward. Maybe you have to go to somebody and tell them, I've never told you this, but you've been calling me the wrong name for two years now or something like that. But I think that this is the kind of attitude that we should have one another. If our fellowship is going to build, if we are going to love each other and be closely bound, sometimes we need to have these kind of clarifications and clear the air. But that's not all that's in this verse. Look again at verse 13. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented. So he's saying if it was entirely up to him, he would already be there. But he's been prevented. Either God has prevented him from going there by giving him these other mission fields or these other duties like bringing the gift to Jerusalem. Or maybe circumstances have been preventing him since he's so far away. But he's saying, I have often intended to come to you, but have thus far been prevented. In order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. In order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. The word for harvest there is actually the word for fruit. So it doesn't seem like he's talking about the exact same thing as when Jesus is talking about evangelism and the gospel going forth and us reaping that harvest of new believers. It seems like he's talking about in the body itself, that there's fruit there in the body.

35:06Paul is excited about what's going on in Rome. And as Paul labors in all of these other Gentile cities, knowing that his commission is to the Gentiles, he's excited about getting to Rome because he wants to have some fruit there too. He wants in on the action. The church is growing in size and in maturity, and he wants to be there. He wants them to experience his gifts. He wants them to grow and be strengthened. And he wants to see it face to face. So as we come to the conclusion of our time this morning, there's another thread throughout this passage that I wanted us to see. Yes, in this personal note, there is the affection of the apostle. We see that his love is just pouring out in this personal note.

36:00Yes, he cares for them and he's kind to them, and these are examples we can copy. But we also get a taste of how Paul is completely sold out for this. This is what his life is about. This is what energizes him. And this is another way that we can mimic Paul. Paul is laser-focused on the gospel. He is laser-focused on what matters, on the things of the Lord, on serving the Lord and glorifying him. Christ has completely reoriented and radically changed his life so that even in a section of scripture like this, where it is a personal note saying he wants to come see them, even in a personal note like that, still we hear about his mission. We hear him saying that he wants to serve God. Listen again. Verse 8, First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. Do you hear that? That mission that keeps getting scattered throughout? We can never forget as we read Paul's letters that this is all he's about. Listen to the rest, verse 11. For I long to see you, that I may impart. To you, some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some fruit among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. This is his singular focus. He's constantly keeping that in mind.

37:58He never says, I've really done a lot in Asia. God has used me a lot. I think I'm going to kick back and retire. Right? No, he is eager to keep the work going. He's still on the mission. He's constantly thinking about that. He's made that everything in his life. And though none of us have that commission, I think that, at least in a small sense, a lot of us can fall into this bad habit of letting other normal things in our life take the driver's seat of our life as we kind of slowly forget and fade away about the things of the Lord, as we forget about his grace, as we forget about how we can serve him.

38:40God has given us many good things, many normal good things, and we're meant to enjoy them. That's part of our life. But let's not lose sight of the grace that we have in the Lord. We can rejoice instead of grumble. When our kids ask us something about the Lord, we can rejoice for one more chance to go back to the grace of the Lord. We can take our time in the morning to set our hearts, like you set a bone that's twisted or broken, to set our hearts right in the morning so that we're consciously thinking about the things of the Lord. Let's keep the gospel focus that Paul has. And as we spoke about the rest of the morning, let's let this influence the way that we interact with one another.

39:36Instead of only meeting for social interaction or as an event in your week, we should consciously meet to encourage one another, to strengthen one another. We should be eager to use our gifts however we can to build each other up. We should be thinking about how we can be kind in our speech to our brothers and sisters, how we can be kind in our service to our brothers and sisters. In short, we need to love each other. Even if we've been bad at it, like we said at the beginning, even if we've been bad at it, we need to love one another. And if we have been bad at it, we have some examples that we can follow today. We can be quick to clear the air. We can be praying for one another consistently. We can be thankful for one another consistently. We can be serving one another consistently. We can bless and be blessed by the Lord. one another. So let's follow Paul's example in this and love one another. Pray with me.

40:39Father, thank you for this unique passage of scripture. Thank you so much for these letters that we get to see. Not only the doctrine, not only the commands, but also These personal notes from the Apostle where we get to peek behind the curtain and see his mission. We get to see how he talks to other believers. We get to see how he loves other believers as your representative. I pray, Lord, that we would have that same desire.

41:22You said that even though none of us have seen you, the way that we can show that we're yours is by loving each other. Father, that can be frightening to us because many of us in this room have neglected to love one another. But besides being frightening, it can also be a great joy. So I pray that you would give us great joy in each other. I pray that we would be desperate to be around each other. I pray that we would be desperate to... Use any gift we have to serve one another.

42:04I pray that you would make us kind, genuinely kind, not flattering, not artificially, but genuinely kind, genuinely thankful, grateful for one another. I pray that you would make us consistent in our prayers for one another, that the prayers in this church would thrive, that all of us would be praying for each other and growing together. And I pray that we would be encouraged by each other's faith as we all seek to trust in the Lord. Trust in you, God.

42:40We're grateful that your son came to earth. We're grateful that he died on the cross so that we can trust in him and be forgiven of all of our sins, completely erased as far as the east is from the west, removed from us. And I pray that we would rejoice in our salvation and remember the gospel of your son. And out of that joy, I pray that we would love each other and serve one another. In Jesus' name, amen.