Introduction to the 7 Churches Revelation chapters 2-3

We're going to be taking an overview look of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 this morning. You might want to just grab that overview sheet in your hand out here. I think that will be helpful as we walk through this. I think it's important to take a look. We'll be taking a momentous turn here as we've been studying Revelation chapter 1. the very first chapter in God's prophetic masterpiece written by John the Apostle.

This is where Christ, our heavenly high priest, calls himself, the first and the last, the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. From John's vision, we're now turning to the seven churches which John had first mentioned in chapter one. These were the lampstands and the heavenly scene, and Christ listed them individually as he spoke to John.

You might remember a few weeks back, just to kind of give ourselves a frame of reference here, we had just finished now chapter one. We're starting in two and three, which I've grouped together here. These are the seven churches of Asia. So just as we begin, there's 22 chapters. We've just finished one. Okay? So this is going to take a while. We won't finish it by next week, right? Okay.

Now, on one side of the handout that you have, you'll see a kind of grid that shows a number of patterns with the messages to each of the churches. Now, this handout isn't by any means a substitute for our study of the biblical text itself, which we'll be getting into in the next weeks. But I think you'll find it helpful to get a better overall understanding of the patterns as he speaks, and I think as we go on, we'll see that getting an overall view helps us understand the detail better as we get into it.

Now one thing to remember is the cities that we're taking a look at here, we're going to be going through these cities that go in a clockwise pattern here. Starts with Ephesus, continues through here, and then ends up with Laodicea at the end. So that's the sequence that we'll be taking is what follows in the clockwise pattern. It so happens that that's also the direction as the messengers would land from Patmos at Ephesus and then follow the Roman road. They would follow that pattern. And that's exactly the sequence that John goes through here.

Now, one question you've got to ask, or maybe you're asking already, is why these churches? Why these specific churches? And I think there are some good reasons for it. First one. John, as we have been told from sources outside the Scriptures, spent likely more than two decades, maybe as much as three decades, with these churches, especially focused on the church at Ephesus. So that would be one reason.

We see from John's Gospels, especially 3 John, where he lists the names of Gentiles. They're not Jewish names, they're Gentile names. And that's further evidence here that he's dealing with not Jews anymore, but these Gentiles out in this area of Asia Minor.

Now, then secondly, in addition to John's own familiarity with these churches, these were all in an area that was previously mentioned frequently throughout the New Testament. Of course, the letter to the church at Ephesus, a lot of these churches had multiple references as you go through the book of Acts. A lot of these churches had ministry of Paul, Timothy, Apollos, and John, also having ministry of Priscilla and Aquila, and of Tychicus as well. They had invested a lot of time in these churches, so that's another reason. These churches are ones that had quite a bit invested in all of them, and especially Ephesus, the first one.

Thirdly, these churches were all in communication with each other. They were all on the same Roman road, all on the same postal route, and also all in the same Roman province. So there was lots of reason for them all to have lots of connection with each other, lots of communication. They would all understand.

And fourthly, but not by any means the last reason or least reason, was that these churches represent a variety of spiritual conditions, as we'll be taking a look at in the weeks to come here. and is even reflected in the chart that you have in front of you there. So these churches are kind of a broad spectrum of different conditions, both within and without the church there. And because of the broad spectrum, it provides a very good means for us for self-examination and course correction under our Lord Jesus Christ as we examine these books. Now, these seven churches have intrigued students and artists and musicians for centuries, as well as those that are just plain curious.

But we want to take a look at some things that have arisen over the various centuries and just kind of make sure we're looking at it from the right perspective. For one thing, you'll oftentimes hear these called the letters to the seven churches. You heard that? Okay.

I prefer not to call them that, not that it's hugely in error, but there are some reasons why not. One is that the word for letters, epistolein, is real frequent throughout the New Testament. These are never called letters. As a matter of fact, nowhere in the whole book of Revelation do you see that term come up.

As a matter of fact, the Lord tells John, he says this, Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things." So regarding these churches, Christ simply tells John to write the things which are, that is, the things which are right now, in the present tense. The next reason is the messages to the seven churches don't seem to have the form of any letter we can find in the New Testament. You can compare that yourself.

You notice how Paul starts off, you know, Paul the Apostle and, you know, a bondservant and he goes. These don't seem to have the same form. So there's a different form and doesn't match any pattern of any other New Testament letter. Then there is a distinction between a letter, just a usual letter, and these messages that might escape us if we don't look at it carefully. And I mentioned this last Sunday that it might be a little bit of a surprise. Well, here's what it might be, and maybe it's not a surprise to you. But these so-called letters contain a heavy dosage of what appears to be legal terminology. Real different.

Some of these words can be shown to have legal application by the scripture themselves, and then some of them, by examining legal documents from that same time, we can also come up with them. Here's just a for instance. One of them is, you see the word found in there in your English Bible, and the Greek word behind that means results following a legal investigation. And where you see that show up, at least in one place, is here's Jesus before Pilate. And he uses the same word where he says, I find no fault in him. What is it? He's done an investigation, and my result is, I find no fault in him. Here's another one.

Left. We'll see as we study next week where Christ speaks to the church at Ephesus and says, you have left your first love. That Greek word there is the one that Paul uses four times in 1 Corinthians for divorce. And the idea is not explicitly divorce, but it means release from a legal obligation. You have taken a huge step. This is severe, he's telling them.

Here's another one. Overcome occurs in each one of these messages to the seven churches. Paul used it in Romans 3-4 as to win in a legal action. Isn't that interesting? There's some more. Against you. is a phrase that shows up and it means to have a legal claim and that shows up in Matthew 26, 62 and 27, 13 and shows up three times in the book of Revelation in these messages. Searches in Revelation 2, 23 is a word that is elsewhere used to conduct a legal investigation. How about that? Another one is I know. Remember where Christ says, I know this, and I know that? That is an acknowledgment of a legal defense claim.

So real interesting, there's heavy use of legal words. Now, something I need to preface this with is, it doesn't mean that this is all legal documents, but if you get the sense of what this means, when these people read this, this must have just stunned them. This must have grabbed them and said, whoa, what's he talking about here? Because the words hit hard. The words just strike and in fact in some cases just sting.

And you can imagine as they receive these, some of those churches must have been immensely relieved when they didn't receive a rebuke with that kind of hard, harsh, sharp language. You see, these churches had begun well, but they'd ended up with a lot of really gross immorality. Now that good start is fine, Right? And if you think of it, a lot of these churches, I mean, this area was an area of just rank paganism. There was gross immorality. It was terrible. As I was reading this and trying to think, well, how could I understand the difference here?

I was thinking, well, some of you may recall some months back when I was here, I told you my grandmother was a missionary to the cannibals over in the Fiji Islands. This was around World War I. and she went over the Fiji Islands and was dealing frequently with these cannibals.

I mean, all the native peoples were cannibals. They even had people meat in the market. You could go and buy pig meat and chicken meat and people meat. Well, Suva, which was the capital city, had a lot of Westerners there, people who didn't understand the cannibal culture. Anyway, my grandmother told me one story.

There were two Western businessmen that were kind of walking down the street next to each other, and one of them was telling the other, you know, these missionaries shouldn't come over here because they just go and disturb the culture and wreck it. And these people have a culture. They shouldn't be disturbed like this. Missionaries should just leave them alone. They don't need Christianity.

Well, what these two guys didn't realize is right behind them, walking barefoot, was a very large, very tall Fijian man. And the Fijian man was walking quietly behind him, quietly enough that the two men did not hear him immediately behind him, walking with his barefoot footsteps. Well, as soon as the man had talked enough, the Fijian man grabbed both of them by the shoulder and stopped them short. And he put his face right up next to theirs and he said, if those missionaries hadn't come, I'd eat you.

Now, that is a difference, isn't it? That's the difference. If we get that sense here, that's the difference that Christianity made. It made enough of a difference that the people in Ephesus would take their magic books and burn them in a heap. It made enough of a difference that when they had the gathering there at Ephesus, in the theater, that it caused a riot because people were so upset that Christianity had come in and diminished the sales of their little idols.

See, the culture had changed. But part of the problem here, that had happened several decades earlier, right? Now, the churches had some decades to see what had happened. And some of them, many of them, had slipped, had started falling back. You see, the Lord has called the church out of the world, but what was happening was the world was seeping back into the church. So that's what this word of warning is about. Anyway, it's important as we look at these messages, and as we look at them, you'll find that many of them are hard, harsh words. But it's critical for us to recognize the Lord does not want to see this world seeping back into the church going on.

We also have to keep in mind the things that He's told us about Himself. He says in chapter 1, He is the one constantly loving us. He is our heavenly High Priest, our High Priest in the heavenlies. He is the one about whom it was written in Hebrews 12, 2 and 3, Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. You get that? For the joy set before Him endured the cross. scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." You see, each of these passages also has words of comfort, not just the hard words.

So I think it's important for us to kind of keep our perspective as we're looking at this. What is the Lord's intent? His intent isn't to sit there and slaughter them. Ultimately, He's looking for a heart response from these people. He's looking for a life response. He's looking for reality. That's the direction that He's pointing these to.

So as we read through these words, and there are some hard, stinging words here, as we read through them, we have to keep that in mind. It's because he loves us that he's saying these things. Now, as hard and painful as these words may seem, they spring from the Lord's heart of infinite love.

Proverbs 27.6 tells us, Faithful are the wounds of a friend. You see the insight that that's about? A stinging rebuke may at times be more loving than gentle words that fail to turn us from the error of our ways.

Do you see the difference there? Now, there's another popular concept regarding these messages that I'd like for us to take a look at too. Let me get this overhead here. I think that'll help. Can you see that okay? How many of you have heard of this theory that these seven churches represent periods within the church age? You heard that one? Okay. It's a fairly popular one.

And some of the proponents of this idea have included some pretty solid Bible scholars, a number of them that are well published and all that. There are a few reasons, however, why I'm a bit reluctant to embrace this, and I won't be teaching it as truth, Rather than just say that, I want to let you in on some of the things that I'm looking at here and some of the reasons why. This idea was first proposed by Peter Olivi of the Franciscan Order of the Roman Catholic Church, and that was well over a thousand years after the book of Revelation was written. That was the first time this idea of periods within the Church Age, the first time that idea was presented.

Most of these churches are known historical churches. We either have, like in the case of Ephesus, a letter written directly to them. These churches are listed otherwise. I think Laodicea, for example, is listed in the Bible otherwise than Revelation about four times. We otherwise have historical records or archaeological records of these churches.

The other thing is that variations within the church existed at that time. It wasn't like the early church was all like Ephesus. The reality is those seven churches all existed right then. So there was variation that reflected these churches even right at the time this was being written. Another thing is that Scripture just doesn't say that these are periods within the church Another point is that the Rapture and the Second Coming are mentioned at different places and not just at the last one.

And then the last point there, different proponents have varying dates for each period. In other words, you see these ages here that I've given as examples. Somebody else will come along and say, no, it's this from here to here. And sometimes the variations are as much as 300 years. So anyway, I don't want to belabor that, but that's not an approach I'll be taking, and these are at least some of the reasons why. Now, let's walk our way through the highlights of these messages to the seven churches. So you'll want to take your chart that you have in front of you there.

Now note, none of these messages actually names Christ personally, but instead it gives a description of Christ almost entirely from the names and descriptions of Christ in the first chapter of Revelation. You notice that? You kind of scan across the page there. Just about every one comes straight out of the first chapter.

There's only a couple of them that have slight variations, and what you'll find is those variations are mentioned later in the book of Revelation. The next thing that you'll notice there in these descriptions of Christ. And we'll see that as we study it in the weeks ahead. Each description of Christ is tailored for the needs and characteristics of each of the churches. So it isn't just a he snipped it here and then snipped it there and snipped it there and stuck it in. It matches, as we'll see as we look at it in the weeks ahead here.

Now the other thing to take a look at in these is that we'll find that there are four time characteristics about these descriptions. They either tell who he is, what he is doing now, what he has done, or what he will do. And in a few cases it actually refers to both. Each of these references has a particular purpose, it's talking about one or the other of these particular points.

These are all giving us information about who Christ is, what He has done, what He is doing now, and what He will do in the future. Now, the first item to note is that what Christ knows, let's look at this next category here. What Christ knows, in each case, conveys that He is omniscient. He knows everything.

And He keeps telling the churches, I know this. The Greek word translated knows is oida, which in other contexts is translated to see or perceive. He is aware of what is going on in each one of these churches. And I think that's an important thing for us to take a look at. Do you know that there's nothing going on here at Holly Hills that He doesn't know about? He is aware of what's going on. He knows what's happening.

And it's the same thing with these churches. He says, I know that this is happening. I see that this is happening. I know that you have this condition. He knows what they're going through. He knows everything. Even as he describes in the first chapter, what did he say? He walked among the lampstands. He is constantly going among the churches. He's very familiar with what's happening here. He's not ignorant of what's taking place here at Holly Hill.

The next thing, though, is he may be saying this as well, to even head off a defensive response. When you've presented something to somebody that didn't want to hear, have you noticed that frequently you get some kind of a defensive response back? Notice that about human character? He may have been doing that here as well, where he goes and presents I know that you've got this, and I know that you've got that, knowing that they're going to come up with this kind of a response.

Next thing, though, we'll be taking a deeper investigation into what each of these things is, because what Christ knows about each of these churches is very captivating and stimulating, and we'll take a look at that. The next thing here that he has is a commendation Now one might categorize some of these things under the next column, under the prior one rather, what Christ knows, or even the other way around, and that's fine if you would categorize things differently. If you want to make extra notes on the chart, that's fine with me too.

But either way you look at it, no matter how you look at it, every church receives a commendation except for one. Which one's that? Laodicea. The last one Laodicea receives no commendation at all. How would you like to be a part of that church? Even the churches that are noted for being in really bad shape, you still say, you have this and you have that. Even if there's a serious error, he'll say this or that. But as we notice when we get into Laodicea, no commendation at all. That's scary.

Now, we have to ask, what does a commendation mean in this context anyway? It doesn't mean that there won't be any rebuke, counsel, or warning, as you'll see in the next categories on your chart, right? It doesn't mean because you have a commendation that the Lord isn't going to say, but, there's this other thing that we need to deal with. There's something else you need to address, okay? So it doesn't mean they're going to be free of those kinds of things. Now under that category, rebuke, counsel and warning. Now let's ask the question, what are those things good for? What's rebuke and counsel and warning good for?

Think about that. It's basically where there's rebuke, It's saying, you know, you have a problem here, and frankly, you know it. You know what the problem is, don't you? The counsel would be not so much, you have a problem, but I see that you could head into a direction where there's problems. So the counsel would be, okay, there's a potential for this to happen, so watch out, and here's the right direction that I want to see you head. So that'll be counsel. And then warning is just letting them know ahead of time, here's something that things are headed off in a direction, it looks to me like trouble. And I want to save you the trouble, so here's the warning. I'm telling you, you can avoid the trouble by heading this off. You see the difference there? Now, notice something.

All are given some counsel. And you know what? I see that as a sign of the Lord's love for these churches. He's giving them an indication of his love because all of them are given some counsel. All of them are being told, there's a potential for this problem. I want you to stay on the right path. So here's my counsel in that regard. That's the way he's heading them.

Now, while rebuke and warning are not what we might think of asking for, and we might not be real eager for counsel either, it's important to keep in mind that this is the same Lord who said, I am continuously loving you. And this is the same Lord who told them in the prior chapter, I shed my blood so you could be freed from sin. You see that? So, critical when we look at this, this isn't someone who is looking for criticism. This isn't someone who is looking for opportunity to criticize. This is a Lord who loves with his life, even to the point of death for us.

Now, you notice next down on your chart, you've got the what you have category. And this appears to be sort of a potpourri. Everything from subsequent compliments to further rebuke, and in some cases, even stinging rebuke. It's as if these inputs from the Lord Jesus Christ are notations about what each church has in its asset column. It's like saying, you've got this. This is yours. You've got that. That's in your asset column. It's definitely a good thing.

And even in some cases, though, it's saying you think you have this, but in fact, you don't. Isn't it scary at times to not have something you thought you had? To suddenly discover, oh no, So when you're out on some windy mountain road, that's not the time to discover you don't have a spare tire. Especially when the tire goes flat, right? He's giving a notice here, he says, you think you have something, but you don't.

To some churches, that's what they give. And I think it's really critical here, after all, whose viewpoint matters the most? The Lord's or ours? What it ultimately says is our viewpoint needs to be adjusted to His. Now, the next category you see down there is the overcomers. As to the reward for the overcomers category, every church without exception is offered a reward for overcomers, though for each church it is different. You notice that? Something that might appear a bit confusing at first is that the Christians seem to have come up with four different interpretations of what's an overcomer.

So I think we better take a look at them and get a clear understanding because remember when we started this thing we said no fog. No ambiguity here. We want to be clear on it. So let's be clear on it. Let's take a look at what these ideas are that Christians have come up with.

Now one view that they've cooked up is the loss of salvation view. The idea is that these promises are written for believers to encourage them to overcome lest they lose their salvation. Some folks propose that. Another one that comes up is that this is really for those who hang out until the end and persevere, and then they prove that they're worthy of salvation. Now, of course, that still puts one's salvation in question, so it's a close cousin to the first one, isn't it? Then here's number three. It says that's the all-believers view. According to this view, all believers become overcomers the moment they believe in Jesus Christ.

It seems to be backed up by 1 John 5.5, where it says, Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? But at this point, it is faith, not faithlessness, that is the primary focus.

The fourth point is the rewards view. According to this view, The Overcomer passages are promises of rewards given to believers to encourage them to be faithful by overcoming trials and temptations of life through their faith in their new life in Christ. It's for rewards above and beyond that of simple saving faith. You see the four different views there? Now, at this point in time, I think we need to chase a rabbit trail, but it's an important rabbit trail, so bear with me, okay?

In John 10.28, and if you'd like you can turn to it. This is the same John that wrote the book we're reading here. John chapter 10 is all about Christ's shepherding. The entire chapter focuses on Christ as our shepherd.

And what happened in 10.28 is that the Jews were challenging him. They came up to him and said, if you're really the Messiah, tell us plainly. What they really wanted to do was, give us the material that we need to hang you. So that's the challenge they've come up with, and frankly, Christ gives it to them. He says, if you want to accuse me of claiming to be the Messiah, okay, let's go for it.

So this is the verse that he has there, In John 10.28, I'm going to read an expanded translation from the Greek because I think it's helpful. It answers this question that comes up in this loss of salvation view. Here is what the expansion of the Greek is telling us. It says, I am constantly, and this is Christ speaking, I am constantly giving them life eternal. and it is not even remotely possible for them to destroy themselves into the eternity nor for any to steal them by force out of my hand." Do you get the impress of that verse? Let me explain it.

The same root word translated destroy above is used in Matthew 10.28 where it says, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

It is used similarly in John 3.16 and 17.12, and is also translated perish. So the intent is clear. Destroy means to be in or reserved for hell.

Now, in this passage here, in John 10.28, it is used in the middle voice. The middle voice means something coming and acting back upon itself, or an action of a person back upon himself. So what that means is, it's the action of destroying cannot be accomplished upon oneself.

Jesus is therefore saying that eternal life is something that he gives constantly to his sheep. Does that sound like I am constantly loving you? Now here's something that's critical. He says in the Greek, he uses an emphatic in Greek, beyond which there is no way to make something more emphatic, It is not even of the slightest possibility that they can lose that life of their own doing. He cannot state it any more clearly. And no other outside entity can, in the remotest possibility, remove those sheep, those to whom he is constantly giving life from his hand.

Do you see that? Do you see the impact of that? The saving work of Christ is therefore continuously giving us eternal life, which cannot be lost of our own doing, or by that of another. That's how that comes across. On this basis of his saving, he stakes his claim to be the Christ. Do you see that? He says, you want me to claim to be Christ? I will tell you. I am constantly giving them life, and they cannot even destroy themselves, and no one can take them out of my hand.

That's my claim to be the Messiah. Someone who argues against that is arguing against Christ's Messiahship. That's serious. Now, so if you've been worrying that you might lose your salvation, forget about it! There's nothing more impossible in the entire universe. If you have indeed placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are saved, period. So we can delete the first interpretation. And the second one goes right along with it, because it acts like things are just sort of hanging in the balance and you're really not quite sure. So that only leaves the last two to look at. And guess what?

The back side of your sheet that I gave you leaves that for you to look at. There's other verses about overcomers, so you get to decide between the last two by looking up those verses. That's your mission in Possible. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to look up the rest of these verses. Alright, we'll leave you with that. At least you won't lie awake at night wondering if you're going to lose your salvation if you have it. Now, other promises. This is flipping back to the front side of your sheet there. In the category of other promises, we have another category of miscellaneous inputs.

Now, just because they are near the end of each message and just because not each church gets one, Let's not be tempted to drop them in priority. In fact, some of these, as we'll see in weeks ahead, are top priority. And then the closing remarks. The closing remark, which is not the last in every message, but just to put it somewhere, I put it at the end there on the chart. It's included in every single statement, and that is, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. you'll notice that at the end, or near the end, at every single message to every single church. The fact that it's repeated so universally like that, that tells me it must be important, it must be critical, and it must be universal.

So let's take a look at what that means. One of the things you notice, what does it start off with? A single pronoun. That means this offers to individual Christians, so individual Christians can take a look at these messages and gain valuable insight. The next thing, it's the first part of the sentence there, and it says, he who has an ear.

That strongly implies that there might be the opposite, right? There are some people that don't have an ear. Now it's not talking about this thing, is it? It's talking about there are indeed those who will not listen to this message. If you're opening to listening to this, go ahead and listen to it. The bottom line is, even though these Churches are addressed to individual churches. This is what kind of opens it up, doesn't it? It says, hey look, anybody, you've got this in front of you. Anybody can take a look at this. If you've got an ear, you can hear what's being said.

Kind of to use our modern vernacular, it's a way of saying, if the shoe fits, wear it. It's kind of somewhat like the Imelda Marcos philosophy. If the shoe fits, buy it. This is if the shoe fits, wear it. So I think that's the real key. He's saying, if you can read this, and if it applies, apply it. Isn't that simple? If you can read this, and if it applies, apply it. Nothing all that complicated about that idea, is there? Just saying, you personally, if you can read this, and you find some truth in it that fits to your life, take it to heart. Have an ear. Now that leads me to the last thought this morning.

Though Christ directed John to write messages to each of the seven churches of Asia, it is God's intent that we here at Holly Hills take away an eighth message. You get my point? He wants us to glean from these letters, these messages, if you will, to the seven churches. He wants us to glean from that the eighth message.

How does this fit at Holly Hills? How does this fit this church? How does it fit my life? An essential doctrine is, and it is essential, any essential doctrine will fall short of God's intended effect if we fall short of applying it personally. Okay?

And that's really the problem a lot of these churches had, wasn't it? They failed to apply what they knew, were taught, were given, understood. These churches, many of these churches, and especially the church at Ephesus, had some of the best teaching and the best representation over decades of time and yet fell short because they failed to take it to heart. And that's why with every single church, He can come back and say, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

And we need to apply that right here at Holly Hills. And look for that eighth message, if you will. See, this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where it really counts. It's great if we can go through this and get all these intellectual understandings. But in the end, the Lord wants it applied. And if you look at what's the overall message to the church, The Lord wants it lived out, folks. That's His intent.

He does not want doctrine that sticks here. Okay? We can fall short if we just poke it up here. And that doesn't mean we should be slack or lazy about studying God's Word. Not my point. But the point is that God intends us to apply it and to live it out. It has to go to the heart. Christ is looking for reality in our lives lived out in each of us. made manifest in us his local body of believers.

Paul writes it this way in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Isn't that what he's looking for in these messages to the churches? He wants Christ's life in us. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." It's that lived out life of Christ that he's looking for.

And he will come with words, however heavy and hard they have to be, to bring that point across to these churches. And frankly, if the shoe fits, we'd better wear it. Let's go to prayer, okay? Lord, we thank You that all the things that you have laid out before us that we'll be looking at in the weeks ahead are your God-breathed truth. And Lord, we pray for hearts, and as it's put here, ears that would indeed listen, that we would hear everything that you have said and take it all to heart and leave none of it left. And we just pray, Lord, that by your Holy Spirit it would be applied to our hearts We'll be learning from you the very words that you've inspired and breathed for us because you love us. In Jesus' name, Amen.