We're going to open our Bibles together to Colossians
chapter 1. Prayer is a vital force behind any
ministry. Prayer is not a device for getting
our wills done through heaven, but a desire that
heaven's will might be done through us. Work
for God that is not energized by prayer to God
will only be, ultimately, the work of man. Prayer
is the vital force then behind any ministry that
is the work of God. I thank the Lord for those
who pray for this ministry. I know that many
of you do in your own quiet time. There are those
who meet on Sundays to pray for this ministry.
At 7 .30 downstairs in room 7, there are those
who gather for prayer for Sunday mornings. At
8 .45 downstairs again in room 1, there are those
who gather for prayer for our service. At 9 .15
during this hour, there are those who are praying
for this day's ministry over in our church office.
I thank God for those who are praying for our
ministry. All of us will be called upon to be
involved in prayer in a deeper way this fall
as we get into the Foundation for the Future
Phase 1 campaign. We'll be involved in a number
of ways, but one particular way will be a challenge
to all of us, and that is a 24 -hour prayer vigil.
When we'll have the opportunity to sign up to
be a part of a group praying around the clock
For that particular emphasis in our church That
ministry like any other ministry must be energized
by the faithful and fervent prayer of God's people
the Apostle Paul taught churches to pray and
God's people prayed In fact, it's not possible
to think of a New Testament congregation, really,
apart from prayer. Every letter that Paul wrote,
except perhaps two of them, dealt with prayer,
or in them he actually prayed. The text that
we have before us today in Colossians is an introduction
to the whole epistle. In that introduction there
is a recounting of Paul's personal prayer life.
When was the last time you wrote a letter to
someone and described to them your prayer life?
How you were praying for them. What you were
saying before God you wanted him to do in their
lives. That's what Paul does as he begins the
letter. He introduces himself in a more or less
customary way. He says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, that is, one who has been commissioned
and sent by Jesus Christ by the will of God,
and Timothy our brother. Timothy was not an apostle.
Timothy was a brother. He was a fellow worker
of the Apostle Paul. He was not himself an apostle.
But he joined with Paul in writing this letter
to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ.
Paul describes these brothers as saints. The
idea in the word saints is that they were dedicated.
They have been set apart for God's divine use,
His purpose in the world. It is wonderful when
we understand that that's what our life is about.
That God has set us apart, that we are saints,
that we are dedicated to Him. And because He
has dedicated us, we are to dedicate ourselves
to His work. And He calls them, secondly, faithful.
Faithful, loyal. Christians in the city of Colossae.
There are many today who call themselves Christians
who are not faithful and who are not loyal to
Jesus Christ. But these were in contrast to the
20th century Christians because they were loyal,
it says. Loyal brethren in Christ. There we have
that phrase that Paul uses many times. and other
writers as well, but especially Paul. At least
160 times in the New Testament we come across
this phrase, in Christ or in Jesus Christ, something
like that, describing our position in Christ.
He describes them not only as in Christ, but
also in Colossae, which is the city where they
live. Paul had never visited Colossae. It was
some distance to the east of Ephesus, where he
spent a good deal of time. It is conjectured
that during the time Paul was in Ephesus, or
shortly thereafter, a missionary team, headed
by Epiphras, of whom we read in this paragraph,
was sent to the city of Colossae, and not only
there, but to Hierapolis as well, another nearby
town, and they are the ones, not Paul, who preached
in Colossae. Paul had never been there. He had
never seen these people face to face. And yet
he is concerned for them. He addresses them.
He knows them through Epiphras. And then he greets
them again in a customary way when he says, grace
to you in peace from God our Father. Grace was
a customary way in which Gentile people addressed
themselves, greeted one another in that day.
Of course, Paul brings a whole meaning to it
in the idea of grace. It literally means favor,
and he is saying, God's favor be upon you. And
when he says peace, he is reminding them of the
Hebrew greeting, which was shalom, still is,
which means peace. It's not just the absence
of conflict, but shalom refers to bounty, to
abundance, to prosperity. And so Paul is writing
to this church, which is composed of Gentile
and Jew, and he is greeting them in a customary
way, to the Gentile's grace, to the Jew's peace,
from God our Father. God is the Father of all
believers, whether Jew or Gentile or whatever
ethnic background they may be from or what social
class. He is God our Father. He does not belong
to a single group. He is the Father of all of
those who are in Christ because they have trusted
in Christ, believed on Him for the salvation
of their souls. He goes on to say, we give thanks
to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you since we heard of your faith in
Christ Jesus. and the love which you have for
all the saints, because of the hope laid up for
you in heaven, of which you previously heard
in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come
to you just as in all the world also it is constantly
bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has
been doing in you also since the day you heard
of it and understood the grace of God in truth.
Just as you learned it from Epiphas, our beloved
fellow bond servant who is a faithful servant
of Christ on our behalf. And he also informed
us of your love in the Spirit. We're going to
stop reading at that point for this morning.
We'll continue the introduction next week. But
you can begin to get a flavor of the Apostle
Paul's words as he writes about prayer and actually
in a few lines will pray for them. What we have
here is Paul's disclosure of his prayer life
and he talks about what I'm calling for my purposes
his prayer circle. We talk about being in prayer
circles. Well Paul here talks about his prayer
circle. Notice he says we give thanks to God.
And so he is including not only himself in his
prayer circle, but Timothy, certainly, who also
addresses this epistle to them. But if you go
to chapter four, which we'll not do this morning,
you'll find that there are at least eight others
who are named who are with Paul at the present
time when he writes this letter. So there were
eight, nine, ten people in Paul's prayer circle
who prayed for the Colossians. Remember that
as Paul writes this letter, he is writing from
prison. This is during his first imprisonment
in Rome. He is not in a dungeon. He is under
house arrest, waiting there for a trial before
Caesar. That's where the book of Acts leaves
off the record. And we have after that only tradition
to understand what may have happened to Paul.
We believe that Paul was at some point released
from his house arrest. Perhaps had a hearing
before Caesar. Perhaps was released without the
hearing being necessary. That he continued his
journeys as an apostle and as a missionary for
several years. Perhaps going as far as Spain.
Some would even say into other parts of Europe
that are unnamed in the scriptures. And then
Paul was imprisoned a second time. The second
time he was imprisoned, he was put into the Mamertine
prison, which was a hole in the ground, literally.
It was a filthy, stinky, dark, damp prison. And
it was there that he wrote his last letter, which
was 2 Timothy, as we count them, 2 Timothy. And
he was then at some point shortly thereafter
beheaded according to tradition. So Paul is writing
here several years before his life. He is incarcerated
at this point under house arrest. These others
are able to come and go freely and they are part
of his prayer circle. Now I call it a prayer
circle not only because of who was in it but
because of what they prayed for. The language
that Paul uses here seems to come full circle.
You notice he begins by addressing them as saints,
a word that he uses again in verse 4, this word
again, meaning that they were people dedicated
to Christ. They were saints set apart to the
Lord. But then in verse 12, as he brings his
prayerful thoughts to a close, he again addresses
them as saints, and so he comes full circle in
this idea of being dedicated to Christ. In verse
6, you notice the phrase, bearing fruit and increasing.
That's going to be the heart of what I want to
talk about this morning. But again, he uses that
same phrase in verse 10 as he begins to wind
down. And there he is praying for them to please
the Lord in all respects, bearing fruit in every
good work and increasing. in the knowledge of
God. And so you see the language again folds
upon itself. In verse 3, he gives thanks to God,
the Father. In verse 12, he says, giving thanks
to the Father. And so once again, we see the
language coming full circle. And then he uses
the word understood in verse 6, a word that refers
to having a deep personal knowledge. A knowledge
that is more than intellectual. It participates
in what it knows. It gets a handle on what it
knows. And that special Greek word is used again
in verse 9, where he talks about that you may
be filled with this personal, experiential knowledge
of God. And so the language in this prayer just
keeps coming full circle. It folds upon itself
time and time again. It's a prayer circle. It
is a prayer circle that really embraces three
ideas. One, giving thanks to God. Two, knowing
God. Knowing God fully. And third, experiencing
God. Experiencing God's power in one's life.
That's what Paul is praying about with his friends
on behalf of the Colossians. Now, we want to
talk to this morning about the fact that Paul's
prayer is permeated with thanksgiving. Now, why
is that? Why does Paul begin with thanksgiving
and end with thanksgiving in his prayer? In fact,
it is a theme that runs through this epistle.
We've pointed out two places in chapter 1. Look
in chapter 3. and verse 15. He concludes this
exhortation by saying, and be thankful. Again,
in verse 16, he says, singing with thankfulness
in your hearts to God. Verse 17, giving thanks
through Him to God the Father. Chapter 4, verse
2, devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert
in it. with an attitude of thanksgiving. Why
is Paul emphasizing thanksgiving? It is because
Paul was willing to acknowledge something that
many of us have forgotten. And that is that he
acknowledged he was not self -sufficient. That
sounds very un -American because Americans are
supposed to be very sufficient. We learned from
the beginning of our lives that to be a real
American, to be a real person, is to accomplish
the American dream. To be a self -sufficient
person, not to have to depend upon anybody. And
a lot of us have bought into that. Now if you
make it yourself, you don't have to be thankful
to anybody else. You can thank yourself. If you've
accomplished what you have because of yourself,
then you can praise self, not praise God. But
you see Paul, a man of great accomplishment,
recognized that all of his accomplishments were
not of himself. In fact, those things that he
had accomplished in himself, he said, account
the manure. Dung. They're nothing. Paul recognized
that the most important things in life are those
that God accomplishes in us and through us. and
that we are in fact a dependent people. We are
dependent upon God and the sooner we write that
in our hearts the happier our lives will be and
the more fruitful they'll be. That's why Paul
is grateful because he recognizes he didn't do
it. He's dependent upon God and so over and over
again he is thankful. There's no giving that
is more important than thanks. giving. We need
to be careful to give God thanks. We are the
objects of His grace. He therefore needs to be
the object of our thanks. Someone has said Thanksgiving
is the memory of the heart. Thanksgiving is the
memory of the heart. God forbid that we should
suffer from Alzheimer's of the soul and Forget
God and forget his goodness For Thanksgiving
is the memory of the heart as we remember what
God has done now Paul in this paragraph gives
thanks to God for what the gospel Had accomplished
Now remember Paul had never been there so he
can't give thanks to himself And he certainly
mentions Epiphas and gives him honor, but he
doesn't even thank Epiphas for it. He gives thanks
to God for what the Gospel had done. The Gospel
is the power of God unto salvation for everyone
who believes, whether they be in Colossae or
Roseville. It is the Gospel that does the work.
Now he sums up the work of the Gospel in that
phrase that I pointed out earlier. in verse 6,
that it bears fruit and increases. Now in pointing
out the work of the gospel this way, the apostle
is telling us that there is an inward work of
the gospel and there is an outward work of the
gospel. The inward work of the gospel is the
propagation of fruit. It has transformed lives.
We'll talk about that. That's the inward work.
The outward work of the gospel, for which Paul
gives thanks, is the progression of the truth
and how it advances. It's like dropping a stone
in water and watching the ripple effect. He says
the gospel progresses. It goes out. it advances.
He thanks God for that. Let's talk for a moment
about the inward work of the gospel, the propagation
of fruit. Paul is here picturing a tree, a fruit
tree, that bears fruit. It reproduces itself
through the seed that it produces. He says that
the gospel is like a tree that bears fruit and
that fruit is the changed lives of those who
believe it. The fruit of transformation in the
life is the evidence of the genuineness of the
work of the gospel in a person's life. Now what
did that change look like? Why was Paul so excited
about the Colossians? It was because of what
that change looked like as he viewed it, what
the gospel had done in them internally. And he
brings our attention to three words that he often
used. The triad of Christian graces as he talks
about faith, love, and hope, verses four and
five. You may want to underline those words.
They're key words to Paul's theology, to what
Paul was looking for. He thanks God that there
was faith, love, and hope. in these people because
to him that meant that the gospel had really
done its work. There hadn't been a short circuit,
there hadn't been an early frost, the fruit had
been fully born. I want to talk about them in
the order that Paul seems to use them logically.
He seems in this context to point to hope. as
being the core of it. Hope is the forward -looking
fruit. Hope is that which anticipates. Hope is
the assurance, it is the confidence of what God
is going to do in the future. Hope is subjective
in the sense that we have hope, and our hope
may be strong or may be weak, but we have an
anticipation of the future. But hope is also
objective in the sense of what it is that we're
hoping for What that thing is that we're looking
forward to and Paul really is emphasizing the
latter here He sees this hope as being laid up
for them in heaven That is it is stored it is
kept in reserve in heaven for you What is the
hope that he's talking about? Well, I think we
find out in verse 27 of the same chapter where
he says, to whom God willed to make known what
is the riches of the glory of this mystery among
the Gentiles. Now he's going to define that mystery,
which is Christ in you, the hope of what? Of
glory. The hope of glory. I think this is confirmed
by what he says in chapter 3 and verses 3 and
4 where he says, for you have died and your life
is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who
is our life is revealed, then you also will be
revealed with him in glory. So what is he saying
that they're looking forward to? It is the glory
that they will have when Christ comes. It is
that which will consummate their salvation, their
being like Christ and being with Christ. That's
the hope that he has in mind. Now, the heretics
of Colossae offered no hope. I have not mentioned
the heresy yet, but one of the reasons that Paul
wrote this book is because there were heretics
in Colossae, false teachers. He doesn't really
define that false teaching for us, but because
he writes about it, we have an idea of what it
was like. And we're going to be studying that
in the weeks ahead. But whatever it was they
were teaching, these people were offering no
hope. Paul said, you have in the gospel a hope.
So don't listen to those who are not offering
hope. They offer only speculation. Nor did these
people have hope from their background their
paganism for those who were Gentiles it offered
no hope But the gospel did offer hope hope was
born in their hearts Because of the gospel and
I want to present to you this morning this fact
that The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only message
of hope that there is in the world It's the only
message by which people can have some Confidence
about the future. Everything else is speculation.
But the gospel is an assurance. It's a confidence
of what's going to come in this world. Stephen
Curtis Chapman has a CD on which there is a song
entitled, Heaven in the Real World. Maybe some
of you have heard it. And before the song begins,
he has a recording of Billy Graham, who basically
is asking the question, where is the hope? Our
hope isn't in this world. It isn't in who's controlling
the White House. Our hope is in Jesus Christ.
And then the song begins, and the words go something
like this. I saw it again today in the face of
a little child looking through eyes of fear and
uncertainty. It echoed in a cry for freedom across
the streets and across the miles, cries from
the heart to find the missing part. Where is
the hope? Where is the peace that will make this
life complete for every man, woman, boy and girl
looking for heaven in the real world? And then
Chapman writes, to stand in the pouring rain
and believe the sun will shine again, to know
that the grave is not the end, to feel the embrace
of grace and cross the line where real life begins
and know in your heart you've found the missing
part. He is the hope. He is the peace. that will
make this life complete for every man, woman,
boy, and girl. Jesus is heaven in the real world.
It is the gospel of Jesus, the good news of his
death, burial, and resurrection for our sins,
and of his coming again to correct the wrong,
to judge the evil, to establish righteousness,
to reward those who are faithful, That is our
hope. And out of that hope, says the apostle,
there springs faith and love. If hope is the
forward -looking fruit, faith is the upward -looking
fruit because it directs the heart toward God
in trust and reliance. The pagans in Colossae
trusted their fickle gods. The Jews trusted their
own self -righteousness and rule -keeping. But
the Christians believed a gospel that pointed
them toward the one true God, the God of heaven
and earth, the God who he's going to describe
here in just a few verses. Out of this hope that
the gospel gave to them, there was faith and
reliance on God. And with that upward -looking
fruit, there was an outward -looking fruit, love.
that caused them to see others with different
eyes. Before they were Christians, they saw others
as something to be used or despised. Certainly
nothing to care about. But now, as believers,
there is love in their life. And out of that
love, there is concern for the welfare of others.
They are willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary
for the good of others. A new ethic! was born.
And it was quite in contrast to the former. This
love is said to be to all the saints. It certainly
was also to Paul and to his team, and for that
Paul gave thanks to God. And so he thanks God
for the work of the Gospel in them. The internal,
inward work. It is the fruit that he saw of hope.
Their lives look forward to something. There
was faith in God. There was loyalty in their
lives because they believed God. And there was
love. There was concern for others. The arrows
of their lives didn't all point inward. They
pointed outward. Thank God for the inward work
of the Gospel. that is being propagated in your
life. The fruit that is there. Because Jesus
Christ has made a difference. And wherever He
goes, He makes a difference. And Paul gives thanks,
secondly, for the outward work of the Gospel.
Because he says not only was the Gospel bearing
fruit, but he says it's increasing. Here we see
the idea of its progression. The progression
of the truth of the Gospel. He calls the Gospel
in verse 5 the Word of Truth. Now these dear
people, like by far the majority of people who
are alive today on the earth, had believed a
lie. They were worshipping false gods thinking
they could get to God through their self -righteousness
or what they did, their works. But the word of
truth came to them. And they realized the emptiness
of that sort of faith that depends upon self
and one's own works to be made right with God.
He calls it also in verse 6, the grace of God
in truth. In other words, they had recognized
that God's true grace gives. eternal life. That
the gospel is the message of God's free gift
to man through what Christ did at the cross.
That's not something we work for, it's something
God gives to us and all we have to do is receive
it as an act of faith. Now this gospel had progressed
and Paul reminds them here of the route that
the gospel had taken in getting to them. He reminds
them of how they had learned it. See that word
down in verse 7? It was from Epiphras. The word
learned here is the verb form of the noun disciple.
So Paul says let me remind you how you became
learners, disciples of this gospel of truth.
Let me remind you of the route that it took.
He reminds them first of all that the gospel
comes to the unregenerate. You notice that in
verse 6? The gospel which has come to you. It
had come through Epiphras, who by the way is
now imprisoned with Paul, it seems, according
to Philemon, another letter he wrote at this
time. But the gospel had come to them through
Epiphras. Notice the way he describes this sterling
man, about whom we know very, very little. He
says he is a fellow bond servant. That is, Epaphras
saw himself as one who was a slave of Jesus Christ.
That's all. To him, life wasn't about doing your
own thing. Life was about being a slave to the
will of God, to what Jesus wanted in his life.
And as far as Epiphany was concerned, that was
the only thing that counted. What is Jesus? What
need to do? And the second way he describes him
is as a faithful servant of Christ. The word
servant is our word deacon. It doesn't mean he
was literally a deacon as we think of that term
necessarily, but it means that he saw himself
again as a servant, as one who was there to help
others, and faithful in doing that. Dear God,
what we need today is faithfulness in the Church
of Jesus Christ. It has gone out the window.
People will only serve if it's convenient for
them. They only want to serve if it's good for
them. God, help us. We are so far from the spirit
of this man who brought the gospel to the city
of Colossae. So far from that spirit that says
I am a servant of Jesus Christ and I will be
loyal and faithful to him Now let me ask you
a question If the work of the gospel involves
advancement and where it's going Where is it
going through you? Through epiphras it went a
hundred miles over to the city of Colossi, and
then eventually onto the city of Hierapolis.
Where's it going through you? You see, the route
of the gospel begins by it coming somewhere.
To that office, to that building where you are,
to that classroom, to that neighborhood. The
gospel has to come there. That's the first step
in the route. Then he describes the gospel Not
only coming to them, but the fact that they heard
it, that they're at the end of verse 6. So that
second part of the route is that the gospel has
to be heard. And of course that implies some
proclamation of it. The ear and the mind have
to grasp what the gospel is. You know, there
are a lot of people in our world today that have
not a clue. what the gospel is. They think they
know, but they don't understand what the gospel
really is. They've never heard it. And it may
be because they have never had it come to them.
It has to come first into their sphere, into
their life realm. And then when someone proclaims
it, they can hear it. But that's not conversion.
Conversion is the third step where the gospel
is understood. Notice he says you heard it and
you understood it. So the route of the gospel
is that first of all it comes through the life
of someone and then it is heard as that message
is shared and then by God's grace there will
be those who understand it, who will know it
in the deepest sense. Now it requires God's intervention
for that to happen. Turn back to Ephesians for
just a moment. Let me remind you of the condition
of the natural human heart. Chapter 4. By the
way, Ephesians is a twin epistle of Colossians.
The two of them share a lot of commonality. Verse
17, Ephesians 4, this I say therefore and affirm
together with the Lord that you walk no longer
as the Gentiles also walk. That is the unsaved,
the pagans. How do they walk? In the futility
of their mind, being darkened in their understanding,
excluded from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them. because of the hardness
of their heart. Notice how Paul just piles up
these words showing how desperately wicked is
the natural human heart. How impossible it is
for someone to really understand what he hears
unless the Spirit of God drives it home. Unless
God opens the understanding so that there can
be faith. If our gospel is hid, it is hid to
those who are lost, and whom the God of this
world has blinded the minds of those who believe
not. Lest the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ should shine to them. So it's not only
the hardness of the human heart, it is satanic
blindness that we're dealing with. But Paul thanks
God, because you see the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. So it will progress even
though there are many obstacles even though the
human heart is hardened The gospel will proceed
it will advance and it will accomplish what God
wants it to accomplish Paul writes with gratitude
for the work of the gospel Inside and outside
Inside it was changing their lives. There was
the fruit of hope and faith and love, and on
the outside the gospel was progressing, it was
advancing. What's the gospel doing in your life?
How's the gospel bringing about change in your
outlook? In your up look? In your forward look?
What's the gospel doing outside? How is it progressing
through you? You know, if it's going to progress
through us, we have to be people like Epiphras.
Epiphras was with Paul. He's part of the prayer
circle. And so if the gospel is going to progress
through us, first of all, we have to be people
of prayer. We have to be people who know what
it is to pray. Secondly, like Epiphras, we have
to have an attitude of service. And say, Lord,
I'm yours. You have redeemed me. You have purchased
me with your own blood. I am your servant. I
am your slave. You tell me what you want me to
do. And third, we have to be faithful to our
calling. We have to be loyal. We have to be there.
What is faithfulness? We've even lost sight of
the definition of that word. Faithfulness is
not doing something occasionally. Faithfulness
is not doing something when you feel like it.
Faithfulness is doing it. It's making a commitment
and sticking with it. Thank God Jesus is not
our faithful high priest just when he feels like
it. Thank God he's not our faithful high priest
every other week. Thank God he's not our high
priest who's faithful a year at a time. But he
is our high priest, faithful in service, and
he is there constantly on our behalf. And that's
what faithfulness is. It means to understand
what our service is for Jesus Christ and to stick
with it. When it's easy, when it's tough, when
it's fun, when it's work, we stick with it because
it's the right thing to do. And when you and
I become a people of prayer. When we have an
attitude of service, when we are faithful to
the work God's called us to do, then the gospel
is going to progress through us where God wants
it to go. John Knox was the founder of the Presbyterian
Church in Scotland. Very near the end of his
life he was quite ill and said to his wife, read
me that scripture where I first cast my anchor.
She read to him the 17th chapter of John. This
seemed to revive him. He began to pray. He prayed
for his fellow men. He prayed for the ungodly
who had rejected the gospel in his preaching.
He pleaded on behalf of people who had been recently
converted. It was a dangerous time to be a real
Christian, and so he prayed for God's protection
upon those who were facing persecution. And while
he was praying, he died and his spirit went to
be with the Lord. That's why the gospel advanced
in Scotland. That's why Mary the Queen of Scots
said, I fear his prayers more than I do the armies
of my enemies. That's quite a statement. And
that's what it takes to get the work done. We
can thank God for the gospel, for what it's doing
in us, and I trust what it's doing through us,
for the glory of God. Let's pray together. I'd
like for us to sing that chorus again, Lord prepare
me to be a sanctuary. Perhaps we can get the
words back up on the slide, perhaps you know
the words, but you know that's what we are, a
vessel, a sanctuary, a place for God to be doing
his work in us and through us. So as we close
this service, let's close with this spirit of
prayer. Let it be with thanksgiving that God
has even in grace called us out of our sin and
wickedness, out of our hardness and ignorance.
He's called us to the gospel. And out of thankful
hearts, let's say to him, Lord, prepare me. When
you've prepared me, Lord, use me. Father, I pray
that you will use this closing chorus to seal
in our hearts the work of your Spirit through
your Word in this hour. In Jesus' name, amen.
Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary Pure and holy,
bright and true. With thanksgiving I'll be a
living sanctuary. Let's stand together please
and sing it once more with bowed heads to the
Lord. Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure
and holy, tried and true, with thanksgiving.
Lord, be at home in our lives. Be the Lord of
our lives. We give ourselves to you as servants.
And we say to you that we will faithfully carry
out our duties until that day that we see you
face to face. Let that hope motivate the faith
and the love in our lives this day. In Jesus'
name, amen. We're dismissed.