Transformed Life: We Come To Church Because God Turns Strangers Into Family | Romans 16

We walk through Romans 16 and discover why a list of names reveals the beating heart of the church: a family formed by Jesus, gathered in homes and across classes, where every story and gift matters and shows why showing up still changes lives. We honor Phoebe, Priscilla and Aquila, Andronicus and Junia, Rufus, and many others as living proof that God turns strangers into family and service into joy.

• why gathering matters beyond streaming
• Phoebe’s trusted leadership and teaching role
• Priscilla and Aquila’s costly hospitality and courage
• firstfruits in Asia and the spread of the gospel
• Andronicus and Junia’s witness and suffering
• approved through trials and faithfulness under pressure
• households tied to power alongside slaves and former slaves
• Rufus and the cross-bearer legacy
• every testimony as resurrection, not comparison
• all hands on deck, all worthy of honor, all welcomed as family

If you don’t have a church home this morning and you want to come be a part of this church family, I want you to know you will be welcomed as family
If you don’t know Jesus Christ personally, and this morning you say, I want to know that I know that he died for me, that he forgives my sins, you can come to know Christ even now, and you will be welcomed as family

Chapters

• 0:03 Welcome And Purpose Of Gathering
• 0:34 Reading Romans 16:1–16
• 2:40 Why Show Up When You Can Stream
• 4:57 Phoebe’s Role And Dignity
• 8:20 Priscilla And Aquila’s Costly Service
• 11:14 Firstfruits In Asia And Mary’s Labor
• 13:51 Andronicus And Junia: From Enemies To Co-Laborers
• 16:40 Approved In Christ And Households In Rome
• 19:04 Sisters Called Delicate Yet Tireless
• 21:00 Rufus And The Cross-Bearer’s Legacy
• 26:16 Every Testimony Is Resurrection
• 28:18 A Church Where Every Name Matters
• 31:02 All Hands On Deck
• 33:04 All Are Worthy Of Honor
• 37:10 All Welcomed As Family
• 38:18 Invitation, Prayer, And Closing Worship

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

Hello and welcome to the FBC El Doredo Sermon Podcast. My name is Taylor Guerrera and I have the privilege of being the pastor here at First Baptist, and I want to thank you for listening into our sermon this week. And I want to tell you this if you're in our area and you don't have a church home, we would love to see you any Sunday morning at First Baptist El Doredo. Would you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week? Man, yes, have a seat. And you can open with me to Romans chapter 16. Romans 16, and there are 16 chapters in Romans, so we have almost finished as we've walked through the book of Romans throughout the year. Romans 16 this morning will be in verses 1 through 16. I would like to read them now. Romans 16, verses 1 through 16. I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Sincrea, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. Greet Prissa and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risk their necks for my life, and whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epinatus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junior, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. Greet Ampelatus, my beloved in the Lord, greet Urbanus and our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachis. Greet Apellus, who is approved in Christ, greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my kinsmen Herodian. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the Lord, Triphina and Triphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Greet Asyncretus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Greet Philologus, Julius, Narius, and his sister, and Olympus, and all the saints who are with them, greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we do thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. We thank you for baptisms. We've already seen a picture of your gospel through these baptisms this morning. We've worshiped you through song. Now let us worship you through the hearing and reading of your word, Lord. Let us leave transformed, knowing that the church is beautiful. And we thank you for it. In Christ's name. Amen. I want to ask this question. Why do we come to church? I mean that literally. Why do we show up here every single Sunday morning? I don't know if I'm allowed to ask that question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Why do we come to church? Because if you were honest with yourself, and maybe there are the super saved among us who have never had this thought, but maybe you've had this thought before that for folks that don't, you know, are not in the habit of coming to church on Sunday morning, do they just kind of get two Saturdays on their weekend? You've asked that, haven't you? Is that what it's like to not get ready on Sunday morning and come to this building? Is that what it's like? Kind of weird, kind of different. And uh let's let's confess that does it sound okay? I don't know. Why do we come to church? Especially now in 2025 when we think about it like this. I can turn on a podcast anytime this week. I can go to HealthWorks on Tuesday afternoon, and while I'm working out, just put on a podcast, and I can probably hear a preacher preaching ten states away that's probably much a better preacher than the one at First Baptist Church El Dorado. I can probably hear a church service online that maybe has music that fits my own preferences perfectly or your own preferences perfectly. Uh I I can I can kind of manipulate a service online to be my own exactly what I want. So why do I need to come to church? Why do we meet together in this building week in and week out? Now, there's many reasons for that, don't you worry. There's many good theological reasons. Number one, Christ died for the church. Christ loves the church. Number two, we are commanded to come. Hebrews 10, 25, do not neglect the assembly of the saints. Do not neglect this. But I believe in Romans 16, Paul gives us an even further reason this morning of why the church is so important, why you are so important, why we are so important. Now, we're gonna walk through, as you already heard, a lot of names this morning. I don't want it to sound like a lecture, and it won't be a lecture, but we're gonna walk through these names, and I think you're gonna be a little more excited than you thought you'd be as we read some of these names. Romans 16:1. First, I commend to you our sister Phoebe. First of all, let's talk about Phoebe. Who is Phoebe? Well, she was the individual tasked with delivering the letter. So when Paul wrote this letter to the church at Rome, he needed someone that he trusted at a very high level. In this day, you couldn't just hop online and shoot this in an email over to the church at Rome. You needed someone to deliver the letter. Now, I want to put a map on the screen. I got a map here with two destinations. On the right is Corinth, from which Paul wrote Rome. Phoebe is a leader in the church at Sancria, which is just a few miles outside of Corinth, there on the right. And so Paul trusted this woman Phoebe to get this letter from Corinth all the way to Rome. You're either crossing some water, you're taking a long way around, but somehow, Phoebe, get this letter to the church that exists in Rome. And Phoebe was Paul's trusted source to do this. And so Paul gave Phoebe this task, and it says this she is a servant of the church at Sancria. This word servant of the church, it's the word servant diaconos, where we get the word deacon. So she's a servant of the church. Now, is Paul here referring to the office of deacon? I'll tell you, for 2,000 years, many have been wondering that question. What we know at minimum is what Paul is saying here, is that Phoebe is at a very high level a servant and even a leader in the church that is in St. Crea. She has a big role to play in the church. She has a big role to play in what Paul is up to in getting word to Romans in all that we've read through these 16 chapters. She is a servant of the church. Even further, he says, welcome her in the Lord in a way that is worthy of the saints. Bring her in, because she's been a helper of me. She will be a helper of you. I just think about when Paul needed his best and brightest to get the most important letter he ever wrote, these 16 chapters of this letter to Rome. What does he say? Send it with my servant Phoebe. I think about the dignity that exists for Phoebe in the life of the church, the leadership that exists. I can't help but think of the many Phoebes that you have had in your life that you've had in your upbringing in church. If you grew up in church, I can't help but be but think about the Phoebes that exist even now in First Baptist Church of El Doredo. I think about the Phoebes that existed in my upbringing. And I've told stories before about the Phoebe that led me to the Lord in first grade and the Phoebes all along the way that helped grow me in the faith. And you have those very ones in your life as well. Because what's interesting about Phoebe is that not only did she deliver the letter, but oftentimes it was understood that the one who delivers the letter not only just drops it off like the mailman or malewoman, uh, but even more than that, this person would be tasked with actually teaching a little more about what this letter means. In fact, Phoebe likely would have been the first commentary on the book of Romans. Because as this letter was delivered, Phoebe would kind of send Paul's words or ideas. And if the church wondered, well, what did Paul mean in this moment, Phoebe would be the teacher to help figure this out. Let me tell you exactly what Paul is getting at. Greet Prissa and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. First of all, Prissa and Aquila. This is a husband and wife ministry team. It's a pretty neat story. If you read Acts chapter 18 and 19, you'll see these names again. They're called Priscilla and Aquila. You may heard those names. Priscilla and Aquila. What we know of them is in A.D. 47, Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome, and so Priscilla and Aquila had to leave Rome. They were Jews. And so they find themselves in Corinth, and they take leadership roles in the church at Corinth, and they work hard there for the sake of the gospel. And then they go with Paul to Ephesus and do great work in the church at Ephesus. But this team is just so unbelievable. We read about it in Acts 18 and 19. Once again in Acts 19, when Apollos, who was this great Jewish teacher, comes to know the Lord personally through the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is tasked with teaching Apollos about his newfound faith. The church says, Priscilla and Aquila, can you train up Apollos in the ways of Jesus Christ? That's who is tasked with this job. These are leaders in the life of the church. They aided Paul greatly, both in Corinth and Ephesus, and now in Rome. And even says, Paul says that these two risked their necks, quite literally, they risked their lives for my sake. We don't exactly know the account Paul was referring to. It could have been in Acts chapter 19, the riot that took place in Ephesus. It could be that Priscilla and Aquila played a very large role in helping getting Paul out of that. Whatever it was, we know that they did much for Paul's ministry. But we also see this at the beginning of verse 5: greet also the church in their house. What we see in this moment is that Priscilla and Aquila also hosted a congregation in their home. As we think about the church at Rome, we don't think about the idea of a room like this where every Christian in Rome would gather at one time. You really think more in terms of house churches scattered throughout the town. And it says that Priscilla and Aquila, they hosted one of these house churches. So there was a congregation that met in their home. What that tells me is that they were had at least a level of affluence to be able to welcome a congregation into their home. It's clear that they were upper class, which that is important. Because within Romans 16, what we're going to see is that you've got uh upper class, people of great affluence, people that even worked within the empire under the emperor, all the way down to you even got uh slaves and former slaves. Everyone from every demographic in the life of the church. Now, this is Priscilla and Aquila, and then we continue. Greet my beloved Epinatus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Epinatus, we imagine, is likely from Ephesus, following right behind Priscilla and Aquila. So likely some carryover as he thinks about Priscilla and Aquila's ministry. So the first convert in Asia, you think about how Christ Jesus has given the Great Commission, called the gospel to go forward, go make disciples among all nations, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. The gospel goes forward. And who's the first convert in Asia? This man in Ephesus. Here he is, Epinatus. Just right here in the life of the church at Rome, they can look around at the man who first came to know Christ in Asia. What a story he had to tell. But what I love about this is it says he's the first convert. That word really is first fruits. He's the first fruits of Christ in Asia. What that tells me is that if there are first fruits, then there are obviously more fruits. And so he was the first, but many more have come to Christ in Asia. Verse 6, greet Mary who has worked hard for you. There are obviously multiple Marys throughout the Gospels and within the New Testament. It's unlikely that this is one of those Marys, but this is another Mary, it's a common name, who has worked very hard for the church at Rome. Worked very hard for the sake of the gospel. And let us say unapologetically, once again, that women made a massive impact in the leadership and the life of the church at Rome. In fact, women make a massive impact in leadership and life of any church that exists. They play a massive role in the church of Jesus Christ. We continue. Verse 7. Greet Andronicus and Junior, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. Here's another husband and wife ministry team, Andronicus and Junior. First of all, we see this. They are my kinsmen, so they too are Jews. Not only that, they are my fellow prisoners. Now we don't know if that means from Paul that they were imprisoned at the same time and same place as Paul. He could just be meaning this, that they too have been imprisoned for the sake of Christ. No matter what he means, we know this: that Andronicus and Junior are so sold out for the sake of the gospel that they are ready and willing to go to prison for the sake of the name of Christ. They have been imprisoned for their work in Christ. It says this they are well known to the apostles. That among the apostles, as we think about the eleven apostles and Paul, these eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ, that they know well of the ministry and work of Andronicus and Junior. Not only that, Paul says this, that they were in Christ before me. Now think about this. Andronicus and Junior, they are Jews. They came to know Christ before Paul came to know Christ. And so when Andronicus and Junior, once they came to know Christ, it very well may be the case that they knew exactly who Paul was, or should we say, who Saul was. They knew the threat that existed from Saul. They knew that Saul wanted nothing more than to hunt them, or at least people like them down, these Jews who, in Paul's mind, had sold out and started to follow Christ. Because Paul formerly was the greatest enemy of the church. And yet now, this great enemy, these two that were at odds, at least on Paul's end, looking at Andronicus and Junior, now they are being lifted up by Paul. They are working together for the sake of the gospel. Only the gospel message can do that. Only the gospel can turn enemies into friends by the blood of Jesus Christ. Verse 8. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Verse 9, greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachis. So you've got these three: my beloved, my worker, my beloved. We continue. Greet Apellus, who is approved in Christ. I love that phrase, and we don't know much about Apellus, but we know this. He is approved. That phrase really meaning this. He has shown himself approved. He has shown himself faithful. We don't know Apellus' story, but we do know this. He has gone through the fire and he has come out the other side and proven once and for all that he is dedicated to the cause of Christ. Greet Apellus. He's approved in Christ Jesus. Would it be said of us too? Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Maybe two options here. Number one, Aristobulus was not yet a believer, or Aristobulus has passed away, and yet his family is still in the church. Greet the family of Aristobulus. Greet my kinsman, verse 11, Herodian. This is interesting. This name Herodian likely implies that this individual had a high up position in the house of Herod. And so as you think about the levels of society that the Christian church has somewhat infiltrated all the way up to Herod, we're going to see another one in just a second as we look at this. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Once again, likely someone who has passed away, but greet their family. Who is Narcissus? We can't say for sure, but there was a very well-known Narcissus who, under the reign of Claudius, was really the lead secretary of Claudius. Basically, anything that happened in the empire, it went through Narcissus to get to Claudius. You think way back in Egypt, as we talk about Pharaoh, and remember when Joseph rises up to second in command? This is basically the position Narcissus was in. High up in the empire of Rome. Now, when Claudius dies in A.D. 54, Nero comes to town and he comes to reign, and to put it nicely, Narcissus is permanently removed from his position or any position, but his family still exists in the church at Rome. And I just can't help but think, once again, Herodian and now the family of Narcissus, that not only is Christianity in Rome in this day at this grassroots level of affecting even the lower class and middle class, even all the way up within the empire, within the house of Claudius, within the house of Herod, within the house of Nero. It is almost like you can feel this covert secret agent, Christianity, on the move in Rome, and it's happening, and it's here, and God's doing a great work. Verse 12. Greet those workers in the Lord, Triphina and Triphosa. Greet the beloved Persis who has worked hard in the Lord. Don't you love Trifina and Triphosa? Likely Trifina and Triphosa are sisters. Their names mean this, and I love it. If we were to translate them to sound similar in the English, we could say it like this: delicate and dainty. That's their names. These two sisters. Sisters, delicate and dainty. And yet, what does Paul say about them? They are workers in the Lord. That you may call them delicate and dainty, but don't mix that for, don't mistake for who they really are. They are workers in the Lord. I would argue we have some among us, some faithful women in our own congregation, and maybe the world calls them delicate and dainty, but God calls them great workers in the Lord. I think you're gonna love to hear a little bit more about who Rufus is. You know, I love hearing stories from every one of you. I love hearing stories from your life, from your upbringing. Uh today of all days, a beautiful day for it. We've got these flowers down here in memory of Marvin Cole, and I think this week would have been his 99th birthday, and Miss Gay and Miss Sheen and their husbands are with us. And I think about just a year ago sitting in Mr. Marvin's living room hearing his stories, and I think about just sitting with him, and he grew up in North Louisiana, and he told me stories, and this is all true, and it just blows me away that he was on the school bus the day that just like two or three miles from the bus uh where Bonnie and Clyde were was captured. Like the day they got Bonnie and Clyde, uh, Mr. Marvin was on the school bus. His sister was at school, and these are just stories they've got. Like I tell you stories about, you know, what I did, you know, for lunch last week. Mr. Marvin tells you about Bonnie and Clyde. These are the stories they have. But even Mr. Marvin and even many of you among us who have these stories, I think even Mr. Marvin would tell you, even my stories he might say would fall short of the story Rufus has to tell. Who is Rufus? His name is mentioned one other time in the New Testament in Mark 15, 21. And it's fascinating that it's in the Gospel of Mark because most believe Mark wrote his gospel from Rome. Most believe that Mark's original audience for his gospel was the Christians in Rome. And so it's fascinating that Mark inserts two names into his story that are largely unnecessary unless you know these two individuals. And so in Mark 1521, there's a lot happening in Jerusalem. There was a man named Simon of Cyrene. Simon of Cyrene, Cyrene, which is in North Africa. Simon from North Africa was minding his own business, had come up to Jerusalem for Passover, thought it would be a normal event. We're going to go to Passover, we're going to provide our offerings, and we're going to head back to Cyrene in North Africa. That's what he thought. And yet as he gets to Jerusalem, there's a lot of commotion in town. You can read about it in Mark chapter 15. There's a man who is carrying a cross through town, heading out to a place called Golgotha. And as that man is going to Golgotha, the crowd looks at Simon the Sirene, who's just there for Passover, and calls upon Simon to help Jesus carry the cross. And out of nowhere, Mark 15, 21, Mark says this that this is Simon the Sirene, who has two sons, Alexander and Rufus. And so if this is the same Rufus, within the church at Rome, just as you and I sit here now, they can look around the congregation, and there is a man among them who can tell them the stories that his father told him about when his father helped Jesus carry the cross to Calvary. And Rufus might say something like this I gotta tell you, I just believed the gospel, and let me tell you why. Because I can tell you the stories I grew up hearing about my father telling me about the splinters in the wood, about the weight of the cross, about the sweat and the blood mixing together, and I can tell you about the weight of that cross as we carried it to Calvary. And Rufus might just say this: I've got nowhere else to go but to Jesus because I've just seen too much and heard too much about the sake of the gospel, because my dad's told me exactly what it means to carry the cross of Jesus Christ. These are just the stories among the church at Rome. These are just the stories of the people as you would go to church on a Sunday morning and you'd show up at Prissa and Aquila's home, you might hear these kinds of stories. From Herodian who works high up, from the family of Narcissus who works so high up, from Rufus who said, My dad carried the cross. You get these kinds of stories. Church family, we have the same stories in here. You say, Taylor, no, we don't. There's no one in here that their father helped Jesus carry the cross. Let me tell you. Every story in this room of someone who has come to know Jesus Christ personally, don't miss this, is a story of someone who has moved from death to life. I'm gonna tell you, if you went to any cemetery in America today and you were out there on your own, and suddenly you were not on your own, and everybody just got up and started walking, you'd have a story to tell. In fact, you'd tell that all over the place. Let me tell you, when you walk into this room, you walk into a place filled with people who once were dead but now are alive. That's an even stronger story if you think about it than my dad helped carry the cross. I'm not downplaying that in any way. But more than my dad carried the cross, my savior raised me to life. That's where I get caught up, and I've said this before when people are tempted to say, my my testimony's boring. I've talked about this before, hadn't I? My testimony, you know, I Taylor, I just I grew up in church. Uh, you know, I grew up in church. I, you know, I wasn't doing anything like crazy, sinful out in the world. You know, I wasn't doing all this. I is my testimony, will it count for anything? No, your testimony is you were dead and now you're alive. Your testimony is resurrection. That's your story. These are the stories that exist in church. Verse 14. Asyncretus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Some of these are likely names given to slaves or former slaves. Greek philologist Julia Neurus and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints who are with them, these others in the life of the church. We've got these 15 verses now of all of these names that Paul is greeting, that this is not everybody in the church at Rome, obviously, but Paul is greeting these in the life of the church at Rome. And I want us to think about something for a second. As you look at all these names, there's some things you get. Number one, you get Jews and you get Gentiles working together, loving each other, coming to church together. You get men and you get women. You get enslaved or former slaves and you get those who are free. You get uh upper class and middle class and lower class and everyone in between. What you get here is really the fulfillment of one, God's covenant with Abraham. I will create a people, I will send them out, I will bless them, and they will bless the nations. The nations will come in. You get the fulfillment of Galatians 3.28, that in Christ there is no uh Jew, Gentile, man, woman, slave free. You see that here. You you get the uh fulfillment of 80s and 90s sitcoms. From 1982 to 1993 for 270 episodes, the sitcom Cheers aired, and you know the jingle, and I do too, that sometimes you just want to go, what is it, where everybody knows your name. I'll tell you, it's good and it's true on TV. Let me tell you where it's even sweeter in the church. That there is this place in the world that exists at 200 West Main Street, that when you walk in this room, you're not a number, you're not a statistic, you're not just a body to sit on a pew, you're a name. You have a story. You have gifts, God-given gifts, that you bring to the church. This is the place where we know your name and you know ours. And we want to even more and more get to know your story and you get to know ours. This is what the church is. And I just want to ask, why do we go to church? Because where else do you get this? Where else do you get this? That every person in here, we're we're we're here voluntarily actually. Actually, we give of tithes and offerings. In a sense, we're we we've got skin in the game to be here. But we want to. Because there's just this place where, like we talked about from Romans 14, we may think differently, we may have different ideas, different upbringings, but we just come into this place and we're family. And that's what the church is. That's what the church was in Romans 16. That's what First Baptist Church of El Doredo is. That's what the Church of Jesus Christ is. And so, why do we come to church? Because we just want to experience that. This kind of family. And so now I just want to close with this. What does it mean? Really, I think in three ways. What does it mean to be a part of the church? Number one, it means this that all hands are on deck. All hands are on deck. You think about the characters, the people in the church at Rome that are named. Again, I'll say it again, from different uh upbringings, different walks of life, all coming together, and they all have purpose and meaning and reason to be there. We all have gifts that we bring to the table here at this church, and all hands on deck. And I want you to know this not only can we not do it without you, we don't want to do it without you. We are begging that we don't have to do it without you. Because we want to walk towards Jesus with you. So this is the kind of place where all hands are on deck. And whatever we have to do to make much of Jesus, we're just gonna do it. And we're gonna do it together. Number two, what does it mean to be part of the church that all are worthy of honor? Upper class, middle class, lower class in Rome. Priscilla and Aquila owned a house that could bring a whole congregation in, and then there were those who were enslaved that that couldn't do much of anything, and yet we are all honored. And every member of this church is so worthy of honor. Why? Because you are a redeemed uh son or daughter of Jesus Christ, you are a child of God, you have so much honor and dignity, you have so many gifts to offer to the church, you are worthy of honor. I just think, and and again, yeah, you almost hate to tell uh stories like this because I could just go around the room and just tell them all, but there's just not time. But as I just think about a few people worthy of honor, and there are many. I think of Maggie Grace and and Josie Kate Williamson for just a second. Do you know they've they've they're entrepreneurs? They've gone out on their own and they've started a business. And here's what the business is. They released this just uh a few weeks ago online. They've got a business right now that uh, you know, uh your pumpkins this time of year, they're starting to get gross. Your pumpkins, they got you through Halloween, they're gonna be beautiful for maybe a week longer, but Thanksgiving, they've got to go, okay? And they kind of get gross. Uh these two girls, they're gonna come to your house and they are gonna remove those pumpkins uh from your front porch, and all you have to do is give a donation. Look at this, to the global missions offering. They've set up that business for the sake of the global missions offering. They will come get your pumpkins off of your porch, and you and you can just give them a little donation for the global missions offering, whatever amount. I think of the Kennedys, Adeline, Elise, and maybe Margaret's helping as well, but but uh we got a loaf of bread from them just yesterday, just two days ago. They're baking bread right now, and in return, what are they asking for? Donations for the global missions offering. I think of Connie Marsh, she didn't ask me to say it, doesn't want me to say it. But just last week, two different days, she had me come down to the pool through, and when I say her car was full, floor to ceiling, there were boxes that uh we about had to get the jaws of life to get them out because we couldn't we couldn't get them out. But but boxes full, why? Because she thought about the kids at Yokum Primary and she just made a Sams order. And you know, Sam's they send you a lot of things. And she just made a Sams order, and two days in a row, we went down to the pool through and we just got boxed after boxed out, and right now that room up there is so stocked up with goods. These people are worthy of honor. I think of just little things. Did you know this? That up until eight or ten years ago, uh Bob Merkel used to still climb up in the attic up there to change every light bulb you see. And now I'll tell you this: Craig Bonzel is now his disciple that now goes up. And Craig Bonzel now has the privilege of going up there when he sees one of these lights out. You didn't know that happened, but there's people worthy of honor among us. Do you know there are first aid kits all around our church? Do you know uh Elizabeth Pratt that every few weeks she goes and checks the defibrillators? I hear it because the alarm goes off while I'm working on a sermon or something, but uh the alarm goes off and she makes sure those first aid kits are full. There's just people around here worthy of honor. And they're not seeking it. Not a soul I just mentioned emailed me, said, Taylor, can you mention this? No, no, no. I just can't wait to mention these things. Because it's just who our people are. It's the kind of people, and they're all over this room that when you're writing a letter, you just want to send a greeting. You just want to say, think about so-and-so, beloved in the Lord. Think about delicate and dainty, these workers in the Lord, think about these servants of the church. Think about these you wouldn't expect, you would have never known, but they're just making much of Jesus. All hands on deck, all worthy of honor. And lastly, is this I forgot there's one more. I was closing the Bible. All welcomed as family. All welcomed as family. Verse 16. We didn't cover it, but here it is. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. How literally do we take that? I hope not very. That when we come into this place on a Sunday morning, it's more than just a church service. What it is, is a family reunion. We had a family reunion last Sunday. We all went our different ways to be on mission for Christ Jesus, and now there's a family reunion going on right now. Welcome one another as family. You're home, you're here, you're one of us, you are welcome. If you don't have a church home this morning and you want to come be a part of this church family, I want you to know you will be welcomed as family. If you don't know Jesus Christ personally, and this morning you say, I want to know that I know that he died for me, that he forgives my sins, you can come to know Christ even now, and you will be welcomed as family. Because that's what we are. That's what the church at Rome delighted to be, the family of God. That's what the first Baptist El Doredo delights to be, the family of God, but even more than us. That's what the Church of Jesus Christ delights to be, the family of God. Would you pray with me? Lord Jesus. I thank you so much for the family. I thank you for the family reunion that takes place every week. Every week in this room, I thank you for the gifts, the God-given gifts and ability that you bring to this church family. Thank you for the privilege of us getting to come together and make much of your name. Lord, even now, if there's someone that wants to come be a part of this family, if there's someone that wants to know Jesus for the first time, someone that wants to be baptized and let the world know that they know Jesus, someone that wants to uh just have a pastor pray over them. Lord, whatever it may be, Lord, we give this time to you. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Would you stand? We'll worship together, and I'll be down front as we do.