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[0:00] Good morning and happy Thanksgiving.

[0:23] If you have little ones who are in the service because it's a family Sunday and just make sure you know that at the back there's a table with some things for them to amuse themselves with.

[0:40] Maybe that's not the right word. If they would like to find other things to do with their hands while they're listening, there are opportunities in the back. So just wanted to make sure we pointed those out to you.

[0:53] I'm a great fan of Kenneth Branagh and his, not all of his movies, mind you, but his Shakespeare reproductions.

[1:10] And one of my favorites is Henry V. And if you have not seen it, you ought to. It is not easy because it's Shakespearean English.

[1:25] And so sometimes the subtitles are helpful. Sometimes even that only gets you so far. But it is a great story. If you don't know the story of Henry V, Henry V is the story of Henry the Playboy Prince from Henry IV, if you go back and read the other ones, who has now become at a young age the king of England.

[1:47] And he has been taunted and mocked by the king of France. And his holdings have been threatened. And he has roused himself to show that he, though young and though he did not show promise in being a great leader, would actually be so for the nation of England.

[2:09] And so he raises an army and sails across the channel to invade northern France, which at that time was, according to law and right, at least in his mind, the property of England.

[2:22] And so, and the movie is about this long slog. Much of it's about this long slog of his army and about the growing leadership of Henry V.

[2:34] And finally, they come to the climactic battle at the end. It's a famous battle in military history, the Battle of Agincourt, where a small band of, a small army of English soldiers outnumbered five to one, at least according to Shakespeare, defeated a superior and fresh army of the French using new military tactics, which is really cool, but a whole separate sermon and message and point.

[3:05] But as they stand on the edge of this battlefield, counting the numbers and realizing how badly they're outnumbered, one of his men wishes that maybe there would be more men from England who would be with them.

[3:18] And Henry V speaks to his men and he says, do you really wish there were more? In fact, what we have here is enough. And he goes on to talk about the glorious opportunity that they have to enter into this battle together.

[3:37] And if you'll give me a minute, I want to read part of this speech to you to get us started this morning. He's talking about the men who, having fought at this battle and having gone back home, will remember the day, the day of St. Crispin.

[3:54] It's St. Crispin's day, the feast of St. Crispin. And so these men will say, then he will strip his sleeves and show his scars and say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day.

[4:09] Old men forget, yet all shall be forgot. But he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day. And then our names, familiar in his mouth as household words.

[4:22] Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester. Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.

[4:34] This story shall the good man teach his son. And Crispin shall ne'er go by from this day to the ending of the world. But we in it shall be remembered.

[4:47] We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.

[4:59] Be he ne'er so vile. This day shall gentle his condition be. And gentlemen now in England, now abed, shall think themselves accursed that they were not here.

[5:12] If you're not used to Shakespearean English, what was he saying? He was saying, I fought that day with those men.

[5:29] And we had such honor of fighting together. And he, the king, is saying to his men, You are not soldiers under me for me to throw away carelessly.

[5:42] But you are partners with me in this battle that stands before us. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

[5:55] And if you know anything about English society and the hierarchy and the lords of Gloucester and Essex and Salisbury and the others that he mentioned, right?

[6:06] They fought alongside common men. But there was a huge hierarchy of it. And Harry that day said, we are in this together. No matter what background you have, if you fight this battle with me today, you are my brother.

[6:26] I read this because I believe it taps into something that God created us for.

[6:40] God created us to be in a community of people together with a mission to build his kingdom on this earth.

[6:52] We all have a longing to belong, to feel like we have a tribe and a place, a band of brothers that we are a part of.

[7:03] And we all long for a mission that's worth investing ourselves in. And we may fill these desires with many things, some better and some worse. But God's design for humanity is that we would be a people to pursue his kingdom for his glory.

[7:25] With a common foundation laid in Jesus Christ. And a common mission to make Christ known to the world. And that we would do this mission together.

[7:37] It is a global mission as the church continues to expand. So that God might be worshipped among every tribe and tongue and nation in the world.

[7:50] And it is a local mission that we here at Trinity are one expression of. One place where God calls us to band together as brothers and sisters in God's purpose.

[8:05] For us in this world. What does it look like for us to do that? Well, we're going to look at the end of Colossians today.

[8:16] If you want to turn there, it's page 926. 926 in your new pew Bibles. If you didn't notice, they're new. They fit, which is really cool.

[8:28] So, we're going to look at chapter 4. We're going to look at the end of it. Chapter 7 to the end.

[8:40] And as we look at that, we're going to look at a few characteristics. This section is Paul in his final greetings and words to the Colossian church.

[8:52] And it might be easy to read this and think, okay, this is nice. It's very easy to skim over these parts of the letters and to think, oh, okay. Keep going. I hope that you will see, however, that God included these sections in his word with a purpose.

[9:07] To encourage us, to strengthen us, to help us see. And here, I think, it's encouraging us by giving us a view of what it looked like for Paul and his friends, his fellow workers, those around him to pick up the call that God has put on his church.

[9:26] So, let's read this together and then let's pray and then we'll look at it together. Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.

[9:42] I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. And with him, Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.

[9:56] They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions.

[10:07] If he comes to you, welcome him. And Jesus, who is called Justice. These are the only men in the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God. They have been a comfort to me.

[10:21] Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

[10:36] For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, greets you as does Demas. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea and to Nympha and to the church in her house.

[10:54] And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.

[11:05] And say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.

[11:17] Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Let's pray. Lord, we pray this morning as we look at this word that you will help us.

[11:29] Lord, bring it to life in our minds and in our imaginations. Help it pierce to the depths of our hearts. Lord, we'll, by your spirit, Lord, your word work in us.

[11:41] Lord, so that we may hear all that you have to say to us. And Lord, that we may respond. Respond in faith.

[11:52] Respond in humble obedience. Respond in worship and joy. Lord, respond in all the ways that you would have us respond this morning to your word.

[12:04] Lord, I pray for your help this morning. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So as we break down this passage, we see a bit of a snapshot of Paul's community and the way that his community has picked up this mission that God has called his church to.

[12:31] And so we're going to look at it. Verses 7 through 9 looks at the representatives, those carrying the letters, this letter of Colossians to the Colossian church. Then verses 10 through 15 is the fellow companions, those who are with Paul, who are sending greetings to the church.

[12:49] And then verses, oh, sorry, that's 10 through 14. And then 15 through 18 are the final Paul's personal notes to them. So we're going to just break it down and look at that and try to pull out something from each of these sections that we think will help us see how it is that Paul thought about what this church mission that he was on and that he was involved in in terms of a community of others.

[13:17] What does that look like? So the first thing is when you look at verses 7 through 9, Paul introduces the courier, basically. This is my friend Tychicus.

[13:29] You've heard of him. He's often mentioned in the New Testament as a companion of Paul's. And so we see that this is an ongoing part of Tychicus' life and ministry.

[13:41] And that one of the things that he does is he goes from Paul to other places to communicate, hey, this is what's going on in Paul's life and Paul's ministry.

[13:52] And when Paul says that, it's very easy to think, oh, well, Paul's pretty self-centered, isn't he? Hey, I'm going to send my friend to tell you all about the things that I'm doing. Don't you think I'm great? But I think instead that when you look carefully at Paul's ministry and the way that he thought about it, instead, that's shorthand for Paul saying, I want you to see what God is doing.

[14:13] I want you to know how we're doing because we have a real relationship. And I care about you and I hope you care about me. And there is a personal nature to it. But there is underneath that a much deeper sense that Paul's life has been committed to the advancing of the kingdom of God.

[14:35] And so when he talks about reporting on what he's up to, underlying that and the content of that is going to be primarily what is God up to? Through the preaching of God's word, through the planting of churches.

[14:49] As you see in the book of Acts, the extension of the church from Jerusalem to Asia to the known world at that time.

[15:02] Part of what we see as well is how we see Paul views his others in his community, how he sees Tychicus. Look at me again in verse 7. Three descriptors, right?

[15:13] He calls him a beloved brother. For Paul, the church and ministry is not a task to be accomplished simply. But it is a family to be engaged with.

[15:29] Paul looks at this friend, this brother, and he says, you are beloved to me. And he commends them to the Colossians. This is a brother with you too.

[15:41] This is a brother who has been joined to the family of God by Jesus Christ. But Paul doesn't only see him as a brother, a beloved brother, but he also sees him as a faithful minister.

[16:00] Tychicus is one who has partnered with Paul seeing clearly we are here to minister to others. That is to bring the word of God to others, to bring the help of God to others, to bring fundamentally, given the book of Colossians, the message of Jesus Christ to others.

[16:21] And not only has Tychicus done it, but he has done it faithfully. Faithfully means he has both shown steadfast perseverance and not falling away or getting distracted.

[16:33] But also faithfully in that he has been one who has walked with God and believed that God is at work in this. He knows that a faithful minister is not one who is trying to build his own kingdom.

[16:47] But one who is in faith working as God builds his kingdom. And finally, Tychicus is seen as a fellow servant.

[17:00] Now this is remarkable in two fronts. First of all, because he calls Tychicus a fellow, which means he's an equal with me. Now look, if you were Paul and you had the ability to start the churches the way you did, if you had the role that he seemed to have in the early church, how easy would it be for you to start thinking about yourself as pretty special?

[17:26] As the top of the food chain, the CEO, the commander-in-chief, the however you think of it. One who is distinct from the others who labor in the church.

[17:39] But Paul didn't do that, did he? Paul said, no, he is my fellow servant. He is my equal. We share together in this ministry because we are servants.

[17:53] That is, this isn't about us, but we are under another authority. The head is Jesus Christ and we are all serving him. And so as Paul recommends Tychicus, he says, look, receive this man for all that he is.

[18:10] For together we are in this. And I send him to you with this purpose that he may encourage you. I want you to look back really quickly with me.

[18:22] Colossians chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. Just so you can hear Paul's hearts again. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face.

[18:38] That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

[18:54] So when Paul says, I want him to encourage you, I want to fill that in with all that Paul has said in chapter 2 about what being encouraged in their hearts would mean.

[19:05] Their encouragement isn't just, hang in there, good job, it'll get better. It gets dark, you know, it's darkest before the dawn and the sun will come up and it'll, it's not just helpful platitudes.

[19:19] But encouragement that Christ is fully sufficient for everything that they need for their spiritual lives and that they would grow in knowing him more and more.

[19:32] So what do you take away from Tychicus? Paul, in this we see Paul engaging with Tychicus in a growing ministry of the gospel.

[19:45] It is expanding geographically. It is also multiplying in terms of the people involved. The church is not meant to be centered on one human being ever, but it's meant to be an ever-growing organism, an ever-growing community of people where one person reaches out to another person, reaches out to another person.

[20:07] And there isn't a node in the center. The only center is Jesus Christ. And as we gather here locally, God has brought us together to be not just a bounded community, but a growing community of people who are reaching out with the good news of Jesus Christ.

[20:36] This is the cause that he's called us to. This is the hope that he has called us to. And we have this incredible privilege, incredible privilege of together thinking about how we might trumpet the cause of Christ.

[20:52] Not just the cause of Christ, but even more so, the person of Christ. Friends, I want you to see that this vision of how Paul related to Tychicus and how he saw this impacting the Colossian community is the very opposite of what I think we can fall into today, which is a very selfish spirituality, a very selfish church attendance.

[21:18] We come thinking, well, this is for me. What am I getting out of this? Why, how is everyone else serving me? Friends, I want to tell you that in the New Testament, the vision of the church is something much greater than that.

[21:39] God has called you to be a part of a bigger thing. Now look, here's the thing. We come to the church needy. We all do. Because we're all sinners in need of God's grace.

[21:49] And we're all weak and need the encouragement and support of one another. So it's not our neediness that disqualifies us. It's our selfishness that causes us to make this about us.

[22:01] Rather than coming and finding that as God catches up in this greater purpose, this greater mission of making Christ known, and that as we do that together as a community, we also support and encourage one another as we do that.

[22:20] And that's what God has called us to. So I want to leave you with a question. How have you lost sight of the greater vision of your participation in church?

[22:35] Are you just checking the box, making time? Are you a player or a spectator in what God has called his church to do?

[22:47] Maybe you're here this morning and you don't know where you stand with Christ or you're figuring out what Christianity is.

[23:00] Maybe God's drawn you here because you've sensed a hunger that we talked about at the beginning, a hunger to be a part of something bigger and something greater. I hope you'll keep coming back and finding out who Christ is and seeing that in him, you will find the greatest mission and the greatest community.

[23:21] Not a perfect community. I want to warn you, we're not perfect around here. But a great community of people who, led by Christ, actually, in that you will actually find the thing that your heart is most longing for.

[23:41] This passage goes on. There's more to the shape of gospel ministry than this. As we look at verses 10 through 14, look with me again. There are a number of things I want to point out in this section and then I'm going to focus quickly on Epiphras for a minute.

[23:57] But quickly, one of the things we see in this community is that there's a diversity. One of the things that isn't obvious from the surface is that three of the men that he mentioned are Jewish and three of them are Gentile.

[24:09] He does say explicitly in verse 11 that these are the only men of the circumcision, which I think means these are the men who come from Jewish racial and religious background who are converts to Christ.

[24:24] And therefore, Paul is living out what he preached back in chapter 3, verses 10 and 11. Do you remember what he said there? He says that Christians are those who have put on the new self which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator.

[24:42] Here there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all. Paul didn't just say that as a nice ideal.

[24:55] He lived it with a community of people where people who had no business together came together for the cause of Christ because of Christ.

[25:06] Not only was this diversity there, we see it also with Onesimus. I skipped over him in the verses 7 through 10, but Onesimus was a runaway slave, it seems, who then came to faith in Jesus Christ and was going back to his hometown.

[25:22] You've got to read the book of Philemon. That's another sermon to figure out his whole story. But Paul commends him as a fellow brother and a beloved one.

[25:37] He also is clear to point out in verse 15, he spends a special greeting to Nympha. We might think, well, he's only talking to men here because all of his companions seem to be men.

[25:54] Well, no, it's not true. Here we see that the diversity of the community being formed and called by God in Christ involves everyone.

[26:07] And this woman, Nympha, was not only just someone to greet, but she was a major player. She was hosting a house church. She was involved in the ministry with them.

[26:20] Paul saw himself in this ministry together of this diverse band of people. slaves and free, Jew and Gentile, men and women together, equally serving because of Christ.

[26:37] And some of them may have been great in the history of the church. It's possible that Luke and Mark were actually the writers of the gospel of Mark and Luke.

[26:48] It was likely. It's hard to say, you know, but it's highly possible. And interestingly, too, to see that his community is not one of perfection, but that some had a checkered past.

[27:03] If this is the Mark we think it is, it is John Mark, who at one point Paul had a whole conflict with because he flaked out on ministry at just the wrong time and disappointed Paul.

[27:16] And Paul didn't want to have anything to do with him for a while. But Barnabas came along, took him under his wing, and seemed to encourage him, and now he's a partner back together with him. If we put the, if we reconstruct the timeline right.

[27:28] So Mark is a restored brother with a checkered past. And then he also mentions a Demas. And if you go to 1 Timothy, you hear about Demas later, and it seems that Demas will depart from the faith.

[27:42] Again, if it's the same Demas. For he departed from Paul because he loved the things of the world. So Paul has a, this very rich view of his community.

[27:58] And as he's, he's simply recounting, hey, all these people want to say hi to you. They love you. They care about you. They want to say hi to you. But in doing so, he gives a snapshot and a picture of what kind of community Paul was involved in and what kind of community the church is called to be.

[28:14] Two other people want to point out? Verse 10, Aristarchus. Aristarchus is a fellow prisoner. I want that to sink in because not only does he mention it for Aristarchus, who was probably literally imprisoned with Paul in chains, but to recognize that all of these other people who are with him are connected with this convicted prisoner, this man who has been arrested and condemned by the authorities.

[28:47] all of them have identified in a way publicly by their participation in the church and in the ministry that Paul is involved in.

[29:04] It is sometimes embarrassing to connect with other believers, isn't it? it is sometimes something you wish people didn't know about you.

[29:21] Where do you go to church? I go to Trinity Baptist Church. Oh, what's that? Trinity Baptist Church. Trinity Baptist Church. Trinity Baptist Church. There's a lot to be said there about the wisdom of how we present ourselves.

[29:41] Paul became all things to all men so that he might win some. There is wisdom in not having to tell everything all the time. But at core, part of what I want you to see is that for Paul and for his companions, they were willing to say, yes, my identification with this community and my commitment to this cause is so great that if I go to jail for it, so be it.

[30:03] I will identify with those and I will count the cost and find Christ worth it and find the church worth my identification with it even though it might cost me a lot.

[30:23] Finally, Epaphras, look at me, look with me in verse 12 for a second. Epaphras was mentioned earlier in the letter if you remember in chapter 1 we see that as Paul is giving thanks for the Colossian church and how the gospel came to them and was growing in them and bearing fruit in them, it says in verse 7, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our fellow, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and is made known to us your love in the spirit.

[31:00] It is almost certain that Epaphras was the one who first planted the church in Colossae. He was the one who brought the gospel there. He was the one who proclaimed it and started the church there and here we have a greeting from them and Paul expands on his heart for them and his mission.

[31:21] He says, if you look again, struggling on your behalf that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. And again, part of what I want to remind you here is that this is not only Epaphras' heart but this is exactly what Paul has been saying.

[31:40] As we've read the book of Colossians chapters 2, 6 and 7 are the core of this book. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving.

[32:02] That you may reach the end, the goal for which God has saved you. That you may find the fullness of all that his salvation brings to you.

[32:19] Epaphras is one who loves the Colossian church and he works hard. And one of the ways that he works hard is in prayer. He prays for them.

[32:32] His desire for them is that they may grow in Christ more and more towards what God has called them to. So what's our takeaway from this?

[32:49] Well, first of all, we praise God regularly for the diversity of this church. We are not as diverse as we could be in the world, but thankfully God has brought a number of different people, ones of you from different backgrounds, from literally all over the world, from literally all over the city, from the region.

[33:15] And you gather here and we are thankful for that. And it's something that we count as a treasure and a stewardship, as a privilege to be that kind of church. It is something that we want to continue to do.

[33:27] And we know it's hard sometimes. We know it's hard to connect with people that you have less human, normal connections with, that you don't share hobbies with, or even communities with.

[33:39] But we are thankful for the witness that we gather together because of Christ. We pray that we will do more.

[33:50] We will continue to value this and to seek out connecting with one another in this space and in other spaces in the name of Christ.

[34:03] Second thing here is that for Paul, the whole goal of the church is to reach this maturity, this end, this place of being full of Christ in all that he has for us.

[34:23] What I want to ask you is just a few questions about that this morning. How much does this shape your approach to others? Do you ask God how he might want to use you to encourage others towards Christ?

[34:39] Do you believe you need others in your pursuit of Christ? Do you think that there might be among here someone like Luke or Mark who might shape the church in the coming generation?

[34:59] Not to build them up, but to love them and encourage them. Do you think there's someone who like Demas might be in danger of falling away because they love the world so much?

[35:15] Do you recognize that they need you today to encourage them? Friends, do you pray for one another? CCB creates an opportunity, our online community creates an opportunity for you to know what kind of church community you're a part of.

[35:36] Michelle, on a semi-regular basis, prints out a photo directory, which not all of you are in because you don't all submit photos, but if you were, it's an opportunity for you to have a list of people to pray for.

[35:54] There are lots of ways for you to pray for one another. Pray for one another in a small group. Pray for the people that you meet because the reality is that we need one another and we need our help.

[36:09] God has called us to be a band of sisters and brothers in this city and in this world. The final observation, verses 15 through 18, we'll do this briefly.

[36:25] As Paul greets the church himself personally, you see in verse 18, he says, I write this greeting. It's probably just verse 18. Typically, Paul would dictate this.

[36:37] Someone else would be writing it and here in verse 18, he picks up his own hand, his own pen and he says, I write this greeting to you with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

[36:49] So this is a personal set but what you see back in 15 is as he's writing these letters, Paul is very self-conscious of what he is doing. He is writing these letters to encourage the church in Colossae.

[37:04] He's not just writing it for them though, is he? Because you see it's very clear that his purpose is that this letter wouldn't only be read there but then it would be passed along and that there's another letter out there that had gone to Laodicea or that was going to Laodicea that ought to be then passed along, maybe copied or maybe just physically transmitted passed along to the church in Colossae.

[37:27] There's lots of ink spilled in the commentaries about what the letter to the Laodiceans is. Some people think that it might be the letter of the Ephesians because the letter of Ephesians was known to be a circular letter written to multiple churches.

[37:41] It's a possibility. I'm not going to die in that hill and the fact is we just don't know. We just don't know what that letter is but what we do know is that Paul's intent and purpose in writing these letters was both personal and occasional but also more than that.

[38:01] By that I mean personal. He's engaging with a community of people in its context. Occasional in its context. He's addressing the issues that he knows are appropriate for this particular group of people and yet he's also teaching in those contexts timeless truths.

[38:18] He's teaching them about Jesus Christ and about the kingdom of God and about what it means to know him and he's writing it in ways that are applicable along the way and so we too here today are actually fulfilling this by reading this letter as we seek to encourage one another.

[38:37] We are reading his letter now as an extension of what Paul's intent was for these letters as he wrote them. He wrote them with a sense of authority because he felt that God had called him.

[38:59] Do you remember chapter 1 verse 27? God had given him a stewardship of ministry to the Gentiles to them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in you the hope of glory him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

[39:29] This is the centerpiece of Christ of Paul's letters. This is the point of everything that he does in his ministry. Friends, this is why scripture is read at the beginning of the service and between the songs and at the time of the assurance of pardon and why we spend as much time as we do in our sermons because we think that God's word is God's means to instruct us and teach us and it is the baseline the foundation from which then we are able to encourage one another and live out this ministry.

[40:06] What great joy it is that we don't have to figure out or make up what it is that we have to say about God but that God has revealed himself to us and given us these letters so that we might know him.

[40:17] and Paul was aware I don't know if Paul was aware that he was writing eternally inspired scripture that's a whole other that's a whole other conversation that I'm not going to address this morning if Paul was but he wrote with authority about the reality of Christ what he had received he was passing on and friends we as a church pick up that stewardship and we're called to do the same thing to pass on the message of the riches of Christ for this is what the book of Colossians has been all about hasn't it Christ is enough for you Christ who is the sovereign one over all creation by whom all things were made by whom all things are sustained and for whom all things were created Christ is enough in that his work of his life and death and resurrection for us and for our salvation has completely and sufficiently dealt with the problem of sin in our lives so that all who are joined by him in faith die to sin and are made new in Christ

[41:35] Christ is enough for us to pursue a life of godliness in him a transformed life whereby the life of Christ is increasingly manifested and takes hold of us and makes us like Christ in the individual ways that all of us will express it but all of us living out this life that God has called us to and not just for us then but that it might overflow to the world that we would take this mission and this calling of proclaiming and making known the good news of Jesus Christ this is Paul's heart and his message this is what he's called us to be as a church Trinity will you will you join with us in this will you be a part of it I hope you don't come here and think gosh I'm glad those guys up front I'm glad they're doing what they're doing so I don't have to do that that's not how we think about church around here

[42:39] I have a role to preach on Sunday mornings every third week but we have a calling to make Christ known and to make him great we have a calling to encourage one another to strengthen one another God has called us as a community to pick up the cause of making Christ known my prayer is that you will pick it up many of you know we're embarking on this building campaign it's going to be very easy for us to be distracted by brick and mortar in the next two years but that's just a tool it's just a context whereby we might do more of what we're already doing which is this being this kind of community and reaching out to our community with this message of the good news of Jesus Christ I pray and hope that we will make that our primary focus that we will hear the call we few we happy few we band of sisters and brothers together called to what God has for this church at this time in this place knowing that whatever it looks like at its center it will be exalting and lifting up and proclaiming

[44:12] Jesus Christ let's pray Lord thank you for this word Lord thank you even more so for the call that you have put on our church and the call that you have put on the church worldwide Lord we pray that you might strengthen us enable us Lord that you would help us to see the great calling to which we've been called and that we would take it up Lord that we would Lord pray and work and labor and suffer out of love for one another and for the sake of Christ in this world and pray this in Jesus name Amen

[45:13] Amen Thank you.