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Walking us through the two primary offices we see in the church of pastor or elder and deacon. Again, just walking through the qualifications required, what type of person we should be looking for in our deacons and in our pastors. And so thank you, Preston, for that message. We are wrapping up chapter three and also wrapping up really the breaking point in this book. He kind of has this structured in two halves, right? I guess it's a little redundant to say two halves. In halves. The first half ends with chapter three. It's been a big focus on the order, the operation of the church. And here, specifically this morning, we see why. Why is the why does the office of church matter? Why do pastors matter? Deacons? Why does the structure and order of our church matter? Paul cares that the church of Jesus Christ is run appropriately, orderly, and with godly character. That has been his concern up to this point in the book. And he makes that abundantly clear in our text this morning. So this is 1 Timothy chapter 3. We're going to start just a few short verses, verses 14 through 16 this morning. So I'd encourage you to follow along. Please grab a Bible. There should be one in the pew back in front of you, or borrow a neighbor's. It'll also be up on the screen in front of you if you need. So this is 1 Timothy chapter 3, starting in verse 14. I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. And most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. This morning we simply ask that you would reveal your word to your church by your spirit. And we pray all of this for Christ's name's sake. Amen. My wife has been, I don't know, it's probably amusing to her, but I am all in on the World Cup right now. I'm not a soccer person. I played two years of soccer when I was a kid, as I think 90% of humanity has. And then I didn't play a lick of it after that. But I am all in. And a part of it, any any excuse I have to be patriotic, I will. And so I think that's really the underlying thing here. But the U.S. is hosting the World Cup, I should say North America, parts of Mexico and Canada also, but primarily in the U.S., we are hosting the World Cup. And it has been so much fun for me just to see many foreign tourists coming here, experiencing the US, experiencing good food, like Southern Barbecue for the first time. But what's always interesting to me is they notice the things that we kind of just take for granted. Like advertisement is one of those. If you drive down the highway, even there's ads for everything everywhere, and we're just kind of used to that. That is not the case in Europe. Another thing though I find often amusing is American flags. You know, we have our giant American flags. If you head toward the turnpike that direction, you pass all of those car dealerships and it's just lined going into Edmund with American flags. It's something we almost take for granted. We're used to it. We're seeing these giant, like huge American flags on these giant flagpoles. It towers over genuinely, depending on where you are, like every other structure. And it got me thinking like the flag, the idea of the flag is not that when you walk up to it, you're like, what a magnificent flagpole. The flagpole is holding up something, it's holding up the flag, and that's what you pay attention to. Rarely do we ever, if at all, pay attention to the flagpole. The entire purpose of it is for it to lift something up above itself. And in this text, this morning, Paul is describing the church as a flagpole. We are simply highlighting Christ, highlighting the gospel message, lifting up Jesus high so others can see him. That is the task of the church. Our church is not the flag. Our ministries are not the flag. Our abilities, the cool things and the unique deals about our church are not the flag. The gospel message, Christ Jesus is the flag. We're just raising him up. And Paul makes that abundantly clear in this text. So if you take nothing else away, this is why we exist. The church exists to display the truth of Christ. Simply put, that is it. The church exists to display the truth of Christ. And that takes shape in many ways. But throughout this chapter, really chapter three, Paul has talked about pastors, about deacons, he's talked about qualifications, about conduct, but here he says why. Why does that matter? Why does it matter the qualifications of pastor? Because the ministries within the church, they are only so important because the message of the church is so important. The pastorate is only an important role because of who it is for. The office of deacon is only valuable because of the people it serves. And the nature of the ministry is determined by the nature of the church. If the church does not have a valuable message, no office within the church is valuable. And in this passage we see exactly why the church is important, why it matters. More importantly, who it is for. There are three points this morning regarding the nature of the church. Firstly, let's look at verses 14 and the first half of 15. The church has order. The church has order. I'm going to reread those two short verses. This is again the first half of 15 and 14. I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household. In this verse and a half, Paul makes the purpose of the whole letter clear. It is specific instruction on how the church should conduct itself. Simply put, if you want to know the purpose of 1 Timothy, it's right there. He's written to Timothy, so the church would know how it ought to conduct itself. Once again, as a reminder, the church here in 1st century Ephesus is in a weird spot. Culturally, politically, Christianity on a whole was barely three decades old. Barely three decades old. They were experiencing growing persecution, not just from the Jews as they had been, but now from Roman authorities. They were in the middle of a culture who was in almost every way directly opposed to the morality you see in Scripture, and they had to parse for themselves what they believed. Like, what is truth? What do we believe about Christ? What do we preach about Christ? They were figuring all of this out. So before Paul can go to Ephesus, he writes instruction on how the church should operate, both in conduct but also in truth. Both of those matter. And Paul makes clear his desire to come to you soon. If you read any of Paul's letters, you see this in almost all of them. While Paul, you know, his extensive ministry was writing, he wrote many letters. His primary ministry was to visit churches. He wanted to see the people and interact and get to know the people and live and do life with the people. We see that in almost all of his letters. Romans, 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, 2 Timothy, Philemon, and of course here in 1 Timothy. Paul longed to be with the people of God. He longed to be with the people of God. After all, that was his calling was to take the gospel to the Gentiles. You can't do that if you're not going to be among the people. So the only reason he couldn't be with churches or go visit this particular person was because he was either in prison, which happened to him often, or he was visiting another church and then writing to those different churches. It is abundantly clear if you read any of Paul's letters that he deeply cares for the health and spiritual well-being of each local church, as all of us should. Not just our church, but local churches everywhere. We ought to care about the health and well-being of Christ's church everywhere. But he does make way for the possibility that he could be delayed. Which, knowing Paul's journeys so far, this is uh there's a really good shot that he's gonna get delayed. I'm gonna read from 2 Corinthians 11. This is a very famous passage where Paul, he's not bragging, he's bragging in Christ. You can read it incorrectly, but this is 2 Corinthians 11, where he lists all the things he's dealt with, starting at verse 24. Five times I received the 40 lashes, minus one. That was supposed to be doing everything up until or up to killing you. That's what that was for. Forty lashes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning, three times I was shipwrecked. I've spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers, toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing, not to mention other things. There is the daily pressure on me, my concern for all of the churches. And then in verse 32, in Damascus, a ruler under King Eretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to arrest me. So it was let down in a basket through a window in a wall to escape from his hands. Paul dealt with a whole lot on his missionary journeys. He encountered a lot, a tremendous amount of opposition. So, yeah, there is a good chance that Paul's going to be delayed in going to see Timothy in Ephesus. So, just in case, Paul says, just in case he's delayed, praise God we have this letter of 1 Timothy. Because we learn so much about the nature of the church because Paul may have been delayed. So, what is the purpose? Paul makes it clear in the first half of 15. I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household. I wouldn't say this is the main idea of the letter, it's rather the purpose of the letter. This is not his primary argument, this is the reason he argues the things he does. And this single verse shows us that this text is still highly relevant today. Many have tried to take the teachings, or I should say, some of the teachings, in 1 Timothy, and say that, well, it it's only contextualized to its immediate context. Only its immediate context why it's mattered, just like we discussed a few weeks ago. But in 1 Timothy, Paul makes no such distinction. The letter is not only relevant to the first century church in Ephesus. It is probably more relevant to the first century church in Ephesus. He wrote it to them. But it is still relevant for us today because Paul is showing how God's people are to conduct themselves in God's household. There's no time distinction, there's no geography distinction, there's no day and age distinction, none of that exists. How God's people ought to conduct themselves in God's household. That is you and me. How do we conduct ourselves? This is not to say that immediate context should be ignored. That is not what I'm saying. By no means. We just need to understand the culture surrounding the events of the New Testament because it does help us understand the teaching and the text in a deeper way. But the truths taught in the letter are still applicable to us today. The truths taught in actually everyday age, culture, and context. Because God determines the order of his church. God determines the nature of worship. God determines how he gets honor and glory. God determines then how he is to be worshipped, how we are to conduct ourselves. We exist for him. Order matters that cannot be missed in this short verse. We exist for God, not for our own pleasures or our own preferences in worship. We exist for him in worship. And because of that, our churches exist then for God. We gather at this church, I've said this many times, to know Christ and to make him known. But that's because we've been commanded to do those things. Paul is used by God as a messenger to the churches, teaching and instructing them how they are to operate. And that still applies to us today. And he describes this conduct in the context of God's household, the Greek word he uses for household. You may have heard a preacher use this before, it's oikos. It's used all over the New Testament, both to describe the gathering of the church, but also the members of the church, the actual believers in a church. We are collectively, you and I in this room who are believers, the household of God. We belong to Him through adoption. We have been adopted as sons through our salvation. Yet when we gather, we are specially the household of God, the unified household of God. When we gather, we gather as those who are gods. It's not like we gather because we want to or we gather because it's fun. We gather because God has gathered us. He has brought us together. Those are all great benefits of the church, by the way. Fellowship, fun, worship, good food on occasion. But that is not why we gather. We are first and foremost the household of God. And yes, I understand that churches look very different all over the world. Church services will look different all over the world. Some churches start at 10, some at 10:30, some at 11. Some churches worship on bare ground, some have carpet like we do. Some have AC, some worship outside. Some have to hide when they worship. Others can worship in public. Churches look different everywhere, but we all are to operate and conduct ourselves in God-honoring ways, no matter the circumstance. That's what Paul is saying. Because what he is teaching goes beyond context, goes beyond circumstance. It applies to every church in every age. We must be careful to ensure that our church is adhering to the commands you see in Scripture, to what we find in God's Word. This is not to say that the things you don't see in God's Word should not be done. There are some people who would do that. There are freedoms you have in the church, but the things God has commanded we must do. It is as simple as that. That's what Paul makes clear. We exist to honor God, and he determines the order of his church, not us. Secondly, though, the church has order, but also the church has an identity. Look at the second half of verse 15, which is after themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. That is the identity of the church, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. Here, Paul gives a little more detail to this oikost or this household of God. What is our identity as a household? Can look a lot of different ways. So what is it? But Paul simply and beautifully describes her as the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. I want to look at these two clauses individually, the church of the living God first. Because I think we often take the word church for granted. It can mean many different things depending on who you're talking to. We just use it so often, it's just so culturally relevant that we don't even know entirely what it means. Is it the building, which a lot of people believe? Is it the people only? Like so wherever they are, if it is the people, which people, like how do you determine who's a part of the church? Is it every believer everywhere, or is it just these specific believers here? What is it? And these are all valid questions. And they can all be answered differently. But the Greek word for church, ekklesia, is what Paul uses and quite literally just means gathering. Traditionally it's used in like a political context, a political gathering. That's usually what that's referring to. But Paul uses that word gathering to refer to God's people, literally as God's gathered people. So if you someone asks you what is the church, it is God's gathered people. That's what the church is. That's all it is, as simple as that. But even in its New Testament uses, you'll find variations on how the word church is used. It can refer to both the local gathering, but also the global gathering. So like our church here, but also the capital C church everywhere, people all across the globe who believe in Christ. But it Paul also uses it like regionally, like the churches in Macedonia, those people, that's the church. But it can also, what matters, I should say what matters most, is it is wherever the saints are gathered, that is the church. Wherever the saints are gathered, that is the church. Those who are saved by the blood of Jesus, that is the church. Wherever they are, whatever they are doing, that is the church. The church is a place where people are sanctified, where spiritual gifts are used to build the body of Christ. It is where financial support is given locally and globally by believers. In a universal sense, it's also regarded as the bride of Christ, but also the body of Christ at the same time. It's also described as a place where God dwells, Ephesians 2, 21 and 22. In him, the whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you, that is the church, are also being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit. Just like the temple was God's special dwelling place with Israel, the church is God's special dwelling place in the world. So if you get a little confused on how to describe the church, it makes sense. You can describe it in many ways, but ultimately it is God's gathered people. And it is where God gathers with his people. No matter how it's described, it's always describing a specific people, those who belong to and have been saved by Jesus. That's what matters. So, that being said, it is entirely appropriate to refer to this building as our church, as our church building. It is appropriate to refer to each of you individually as the church. It is also appropriate to refer to all the churches in Oklahoma City as the church. It's also appropriate to refer to believers everywhere as the church. We are those God has gathered for his namesake. That is the church. So that's God's household, is the people of God. But there's the second element to the identity of the church that he says. We are also described, interestingly, as the pillar and foundation of the truth. Here, Paul highlights more about what we do rather than who we are. We are the church of God, we are his gathered people, but because of that, we are also guardians of his truth. We are proponents of the things of God. We do not merely gather. We do not merely look after one another. We also do not merely worship. We are the pillar and foundation of the truth here in the world. The church is. We defend the very truths of God through what we preach, what we teach, what we proclaim, the gospel message that we share, we share truth and nothing else. Nothing else. All of this comes back to the very truth by which you and I are saved, which is the gospel. What else is there for us to teach? The gospel is the truth concerning Christ. And if it is the truth that he is fully God, who took on flesh, dwelt, lived among us, lived a sinless life, fulfilled the law, and eventually died in our place, that's what we proclaim. That is what we uphold. That is our foundation. But it is also the truth that because of his perfection, three days later he rose again, and anyone who places their faith in him for salvation will find it. That is what we pillar, that is what we proclaim so often. So often, churches herald different messages. Not that they never teach the gospel, but if you were to just go, what is their primary message? What do they primarily teach? What do they uphold for the most part? At this church, the first thing, the primary thing, the bulk of what we teach should be the gospel. It should be pointing others to salvation in Christ because He is the only way. I can give you parenting lessons, may not be the best parenting lessons, but I can give you parenting lessons. I can give you relationship advice. I can give you, I can counsel you as best as possible. I can point you to read scripture, I can try to disciple you, I can give you resources, that's all great and fine. But if I don't preach the gospel, I'm giving you nothing. I'm giving you nothing. And if you go to your neighbor and you're a friend and a good neighbor and you're kind and you never preach the gospel, you're doing them no favors. That is what we herald. That is the truth we proclaim and champion. But notice the word Paul chose to use, which is pillar. Just as a reminder, the people in Ephesus during this time would have a very clear sense of what the pillar was and what it was for. The purpose of pillars is not just to hold the roof up, it does do that. But in Ephesus especially, it's to thrust whatever it's holding so high, that is what you see. That's the only thing you can see. There is a really famous temple, and you can go see the ruins today in Ephesus, modern-day Turkey. But the people had this temple of Artemis. We talked about this a couple weeks ago, regarded as one of at the time, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It had 100 columns. A hundred columns. This is roughly what historians and archaeologists believe this would have looked like. Just so, just like this temple, Paul would have had this in mind. He's writing to the churches. Ephesus, they see this temple every day. We likewise are the pillar of the truth of the gospel. The church upholds the gospel message just like the pillars uphold the top of that temple. We hold it aloft, we hold truth up so it's seen and admired by the world. That's what the church does. And I don't think the church does a great job at that all the time. Because I think the things we choose to hold up and choose to herald are not what we ought to. We like to highlight ourselves. We like to advertise how new or modern or relevant the church is. But the reality is we uphold, we pillar the truth of the gospel. That is it. We don't boast in ourselves, we don't highlight ourselves, hoping that more people will join this church. We pray and proclaim the gospel so that people would see the truth of Christ and come to saving faith in Him. That's the goal. If more people come to this church, praise God. If more people don't, and we're proclaiming the gospel message faithfully, praise God. Matthew 5, 14 through 16. Jesus just puts it very simply. You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. The church heralds that light in the darkness of this world. The church is in itself the light in the world because God dwells with his people. We must prop up the truth about Jesus if we want to see others come to faith in him. So notice where Paul's taking us, right? We've seen the order of the church, we've seen the identity of the church, yet neither of those things is his destination. He finishes as he always finishes. Thirdly and finally, the church has a message. This is verse 16. What is the truth we herald in our pillars 4? Most certainly, verse 16, the mystery of godliness is great. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Paul can't help but preach whenever he gets to an opportunity to preach, he has to share the gospel. He just finished describing the church as the pillar of the truth. What is that truth? What do we uphold? That's what Timothy was tasked with at the very beginning of the book, to guard against false teaching. So, what's the antithesis? What is the antidote? And actually, verse 16, most scholars believe that Paul is likely quoting something like a famous early church confession or perhaps an early church hymn, something that would have been passed around amongst the early churches and been said aloud together. But firstly, Paul says it is the truth concerning the mystery of godliness. And we see Paul use this a lot because you'll read throughout the New Testament the mysteries of God. What is that? But it is associated with one person, and that is Jesus Christ. You see this so clearly in Colossians 2. He just makes it clear. What is the mystery of God? Colossians 2, 2 through 3. I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery, Christ. In him, hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Christ reveals the mysteries of God. It's important to clarify what he means by mysteries, not saying that God is a mystery who can't be understood or can't be explained or described, not to his fullest extent, certainly, but rather the mystery of God is simply a proclamation that in Christ you see things about God you wouldn't normally see. You see character of God, you see the love of God displayed, you see his in his humanity, the desire that God has for salvation of his people. Hebrews 1, I'm going to reference a lot of New Testament verses. Hebrews 1, 3. The first half. The sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. He reflects the truth and mysteries of God. That's what Jesus does. If you want to know God, look to Christ. This is why I believe where many modern-day apologists fail for the faith. We don't want atheists to just believe in some intelligent designer or to recognize the possibility of a God. I think that's a step. We want atheists to believe and place their faith in Christ Jesus, the mysteries of God. That's what we want. We want them to know Jesus. But then Paul describes Jesus, the mystery of God. What has he accomplished? We'll take these individually. First, he says he was manifested in the flesh. That's the Christmas story. He came down. Jesus did not stay in heaven. He did not stay in glory. Rather, he came down, took on flesh. John 1.14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the only, the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. We preach the fact that God has come down to you and me. He has not remained distant, he has never been distant. He is accessible to all. But also Christ was vindicated in the Spirit. What does this mean? As you might guess, there's some differences in how people understand this verse. I believe, though, that this is a clear reference to Christ's resurrection, especially when you consider all that Paul is talking about. The resurrection was itself God's stamp of approval on Christ, that he is the perfect sacrifice. If Christ was not the perfect sacrifice, there would be no resurrection. I believe Paul is referencing the same truth he teaches in Romans 8.11. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his spirit, who lives in you. The word in Greek Paul uses that the CSB translates vindicated is just a legal term. Just refers to something being approved. It is past. Christ's ministry, his life, his sacrifice, they are all vindicated by the Spirit, approved. His work has been approved on your and my behalf. So we preach the fact that Christ is the only way, but is also the sure way. But also you've seen by angels. There's also some debate over this would be referring to in particular. I don't know if Paul's referencing something in particular, but what is clear, as with the former, that when we take this together, it is a reference to Christ's ultimate redemptive work. The angels in heaven bore witness to the work of Christ. The angels bowed down to the Lamb in the book of Revelation. They recognize that He is the one worthy to open the seal, to break the seal. The angels serve the church of Christ. They bear witness to Christ. But also he was preached among the nations and believed on in the world. I'll take these two together because they go hand in hand. It's like watching a movie in black and white, and you don't have either the black or the white. It does not make sense. We preach among the nations, and he is believed in the world. Those two things happen together. God has chosen to save sinners through the preaching of the gospel and believing upon Christ Jesus. But not only that, he has chosen his church to carry and to preach that message. Romans 10, 14 and 15. I told you I'm going to reference a lot. How then can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Christ Jesus was preached back then, believed on back then. Christ Jesus is preached today, and he's believed on today. Because there is no other name by which people will be saved. But finally, Paul says, taken up in glory. That they would go preach, baptize, make disciples, and only then was he taken up in glory, where he waits for the time only the Father knows. So we preach that Christ was raised and is preparing a place for you and me and is coming back again. That is the message. That is the truth. That is what every pastor is called to preach. That is what every deacon serves to protect. That is what every member upholds. That brings us back to Paul's entire point that the church exists to display the truth of Christ. There is no other purpose for the church. We display the truth of Christ. We don't have fun programs so that people will bring their kids. We don't do things like VBS so that people will come and see what we do here. We don't try to put on a good performance so we'll draw people into ourselves. We are faithful to display the truth of Christ, no matter the circumstance. We want to do things with excellence and serve God well. All of that is true. But if we're not here to proclaim and worship, we are doing the wrong things. Paul spent three chapters talking about false teaching, prayer, worship, men and women, pastors, deacons, and here he tells us why. Because the church matters. Because what it proclaims matters, its identity matters, not because the building matters or the traditions we do matter, or because our preferences matter. The church matters because God has chosen his church to hold high the greatest truth that the world has ever known. But that means there's something for us to do. Because, yeah, I get it. Like that's cool that the church does these things. How do we do these things? If we are the pillar and foundation of the truth, that means every one of us has a responsibility. We don't just simply attend church. We don't simply consume sermons. We don't simply enjoy Christian friendships. All of that is great and good. But we have been entrusted with the gospel of Christ Jesus. That is the very message of salvation to people who are dying and going to hell. That is the message you have been entrusted with. You are not a consumer. You participate in the work of God. That is what we have been entrusted with. So I want to leave you with a very simple question. I think this is up on the screen. Are you known for holding Jesus high? Are you known for holding Jesus high? Are you a flagpole? Are you a pillar? If you were to pull the people in your life, your co-workers, your colleagues, a boss, a neighbor, a friend, a child, a spouse, would they say that you hold Jesus high in your life? Because if we are doing everything well, if our worship is great, if our carpet is clean, if our hallway is the perfect temperature, that's great. But we're not lifting Christ high, then we are failing at everything. And if you are here and you have never believed in the gospel message, you've never believed and placed your faith that Christ has done all of these things for you on your behalf, that he has come and lived the way you couldn't, died the death you deserved, if you just place your faith in him, you will find salvation and reconciliation back to God. Do that this morning. There is no better time than now. We're always going to have a time of response as we do every time. I just want you to reflect on this question. Are you known for holding Jesus high? To whomever you interact with, are you known for holding Christ high? We'll take a couple minutes. Please pray, reflect, pray with a neighbor, pray aloud, pray quietly, reflect on this question. When you're ready, we'll participate in the Lord's Supper. I only ask that you be a believer in Christ Jesus. We don't do closed communion. You don't have to be a member of this church necessarily in order to partake. But when you're ready, just come and then Darrell will lead us in a minute. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the nature of the church. We thank you for the truth Paul teaches in 1 Timothy. We thank you for the relevance we see in 1 Timothy. We thank you for the order we see in 1 Timothy. We just ask that you would guide us by your Spirit to be faithful. We want to be faithful in how we conduct ourselves in our offices and our qualifications. But more importantly, we want to be faithful in the truth that we proclaim. Would you empower the message we proclaim by your spirit? Would you save sinners? That through our preaching of the gospel, you would save people. Save sinners. That's what we pray. And we ask that you would use us to accomplish your purposes. And we pray all of this by your spirit's power for Christ's name's sake.