The Church Her Service & Stewardship

We're going through Dr. Lewis Barry Schaffer's book on major Bible themes and we've been doing a chapter week and so this has been a year study and Roger and I have been team teaching here and we're down to chapter 37, the church and her service and stewardship. And if you have read the chapter, Dr. Schaffer addresses the fact that Each believer is a believer-priest, and he goes through the priesthood, and he compares the priesthood of the believer with the priesthood back in the Old Testament.

I personally didn't think that was, what, apropos in terms of looking at the church or service and stewardship. So we're just going to take a little different approach this morning. And so, here's the questions that we're going to try and answer this morning with respect to the church, or service, and stewardship. And the major question I have is this. How do you, as a believer in the Word of Jesus Christ, glorify God by your service and your stewardship? And four questions come out of that in terms of what we're going to look at. Here we are believers.

What do we present to God? Do we think about the fact that we've got to be doing some good works and that's our presentation to God? So what do we present to God? What does Scripture say that we present to God? The second question is this. What's the purpose of your spiritual gift? And we're going to see later that every single believer is given at least one spiritual gift. So the question is, now, what's the purpose of that gift that you have? Whether you know it or not, it doesn't matter. You have a spiritual gift. What's the purpose of that gift?

The third question is with faith, rest, and good works. You know in this place, we talk about resting and trusting the Lord by faith. And oftentimes, people construe that to mean that, well, I just sit and rest and wait for the Lord to make his move, and maybe he'll let me know, maybe he won't, but I'm not going to do a thing. So, how does faith, rest, and good works go together? Are they contradictory to each other, or what?

Fourth question is, the big question is about giving, talking about stewardship, and when you think of stewardship, the first thing you think of is usually what? Money. And giving financially. So the question is, how much should you give financially? And of course, the big number is what? Tithing. And tithing means what?

How much? 10%. And then the question is, well, is this 10% of net? Is this 10% of gross? Right? And all these questions come in. So, is that what the Lord's looking for? You know, this 10%? Yeah, it's got to be 10% or net or gross. You know, that kind of thing. So, okay. This is a lot to cover.

Where I really would like to spend time on is here in terms of the purpose of your spiritual gift. So, let's tackle We're going to look at all four questions in a summary fashion. We're going to look at them in a summary fashion and answer them in a summary fashion. And then I'm going to go back and try to spend some more time in terms of the purpose of our spiritual gifts.

Now, we're talking about glorifying God. And that's what we're here for. Our purpose in terms of why we're here is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ while we're here. As I've shown on the overhead there, there's a prerequisite. And the prerequisite in terms of glorifying God is that we must be walking by faith. And not only that, we must be abiding in Christ. And so when you look at these passages of scripture, and you don't need to turn there because what I'm trying to do is to conserve time as opposed to looking through the scriptures. I've got Colossians 2, 6, and 7. up on the overhead.

It says, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. How did you receive Christ? By faith. So you walk, and the word there, peripetuo, you conduct your life exactly the same way. So you receive them by faith, you peripateel, you walk around, whatever you do, wherever the Lord has you, moment by moment, you walk the same way, you walk by faith, just resting and trusting in Him. And the thing is this, this is a command, it's an imperative, that you do it. And then it's interesting, because the rest of this So this is active voice where you do it, that you walk by faith.

Then passive voice is all the rest. He's going to root you in the person of Christ. He's going to build you up. He's going to edify you in Christ, all passive voice. You walk by faith and he does the rest. And he's going to establish you. He's going to fix you in the faith. Notice there's a definite article there, the faith.

Question, when it's talking about the faith, what is it talking about, as opposed to faith? So if we say, just as you have received Jesus Christ the Lord so walking in him receiving by faith. What kind of faith is that? Personal faith. Now it says that he's going to establish you in the faith. What faith is that? Is that your personal faith? Is he going to establish you in your personal faith?

Okay. Okay, and certainly he does that. But the faith, and usually every time you see the word faith preceded by that definite article, it's talking about usually the whole body of truth that's in scripture. That's the faith. So here's the faith. The faith. The entire body of truth as it is in scripture. So these are all passive. He is going to do this. He's going to root you. He's going to build you up. He's going to edify you. He's going to establish you. He's going to fix you in the faith. He's going to give you a firm standing. in the truth of the Word of God. And then, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Now here's another active voice, which this is what you and I do. So we start out by walking by faith, active voice, we perform that action, we trust the And then he does the next three things. He roots us, he builds us up, and he establishes us in the faith, the whole body of truth. And there's only one response that we could have to all of that, and to thank him, to give thanks. And this is an active voice.

OK, to go on in terms of prerequisites with respect to glorifying God, in John 15, Where Christ was talking, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me, and I in him, the same, bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. So there's no way that we can glorify God unless we're abiding in Christ. There's no way that we can be a vessel to Him in His work unless we're abiding in Christ.

And the word abide, as you know, is one of my favorite words. It's a hangout word. It's where you're hanging out. It's that you're hanging out with the Lord and you have this intimacy moment by moment with Him. And that's the prerequisite before we can ever answer any of these questions here. Presenting. Okay. Interesting.

With respect to what should you present to God as you go As you go through scripture, I've listed four things, and there's others. First of all, it says that we present ourselves. You present yourself to God. You present your body to God. You present your sacrifice of praise to God. You present your sacrifice of good works to God. So the interesting thing is this. is that before God utilizes us in any good works that He has, there's this presentation by us. There's the walking by faith, abiding in Him, then there's this presentation, presenting yourself, presenting your body. How do we do that?

So you look in Romans 12.1, and 12.1 says this, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So the question is, How do you present yourself to God? How do you do that?

Hey, there's a command in Scripture, and every command in Scripture that the Lord gives us He expects it to be fulfilled, okay? And so he expects it to be fulfilled in our lives. So how do we present ourselves to God? Maybe the best summary I could give on that in prayer is to say, Lord, here am I. And however you want to use me, however you want to use me, in your work, here am I. So are you saying now that you need to say that? I mean, just abiding in Him and just focusing on Him is not enough?

You have to... I'm just wondering. Okay. Alright, so here's the answer. And it's a command to us that we are to do this presenting. And it's interesting, it says, by the mercies of God. And that's not saying, and the translation is this, it's not saying, because God showed you mercy, therefore you should present yourself to him. The means by which What this is talking about is the means by which you present yourself to say, here am I. You can only do it by his mercy, as opposed to that you're doing this because he showed mercy on you. So that's not what this is saying.

So yes, there is this presentation. Now, there's this debate. Do you do this as an aorist tense? Do you do this as a point fact of one time in your life, or is this an aggressive heiress, which is you do it at different points. And I think you do it at different points as opposed to one point in your life, but we won't go through that.

But there is this presentation in terms of, Lord, here am I. With respect to sacrifice of praise, look what the Lord wants us to present ourselves. He just wants you. He wants your heart. He wants my heart. We often read in Acts that When people became believers, they sold all that they had, and they pooled all the money. And we tend to think that what the Lord wants us to do is sell everything we have and just give it to Him.

That's not what Scripture is saying. There's an order. There's a wonderful order here that's presented in the Scripture. First, walk by faith, abiding in Christ. this presentation of ourselves to him. Lord, here am I. And then the other thing that we present to him is our sacrifice, this sacrifice of praise, that we praise him for who and what he is, for what he has done. and we're thankful to Him.

We're not doing anything, right? We're not doing anything yet, but we're just being thankful. And then in verse 16, in Hebrews 13, it says, but to do good and to communicate or to share, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. So here's this other presentation to do good. But all of these other things come first before the Lord is going to use us to do to do good, and we're going to be talking about good works in just a moment.

Any questions, please press on here to the next point. So what should we do? What should you present to God, yourself, your body, your sacrifice of Christ? your sacrifice of good works. Second question, what's the purpose of your spiritual gift? This is just a summary. I'm going to try and hit this in a little bit more detail.

As you look in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we see there that the Lord has given you, and he's given me at least, one spiritual gift. and your spiritual gift, the purpose of it, is for the edification of the body, for the building up of the entire body of Christ. So, let's look at... I want to show you 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And Paul says this in verse 1, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you to be ignorant.

And he goes on to in verse 4 and he says, Now there are diversity of gifts. There are many different types of gifts, but the same spirit. It's the one spirit that has diversified gifts amongst the body. So here we are, the body of Christ. and he's given us a diversity of gifts. But the manifestation of that, the working out of that, of those gifts, is by the Spirit. He is the one that manifests those gifts. So it's not us trying to perform those gifts in and of our strength, but it's the Spirit of God that is the one that is empowering us, that is using us as a vessel to manifest that very gift, whatever that gift is, whether it's teaching, whether it's giving, whether it's a gift of help, and there are many gifts that are listed in Scripture. But notice what it says, but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to, what?

Every man to profit withal. In this computer program I bought, it has the King James Version, of course, which you know, if it was good enough for Paul, it was good enough for me, and that's why I like it. But this King James Version really must go back to 1611, because it has the archaic words in it. at least the Schofield Bible has updated those words into our vernacular. So I look at that and sometimes I've changed it. You see the point there is that every one of us has a spiritual gift.

And what for? And here's the purpose. In Ephesians 4.12 it says, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

Edifying means what? Building up? Are we building up the body of Christ in numbers? Are we trying to pack out this auditorium? or pack out this classroom? Are we trying to build up the body that way? Okay, the idea of maturing or spiritual, building up spiritually? Okay. And when you see edifying, it always is referring to the spiritual maturity or the spiritual building up of the body.

And it's never concerned about numbers. And is it interesting, the focus today is on what? Nickels and noses, right? And it's on money and it's on number of people. The more people you have, the more money you have. The more money you have, the more programs you have. And the more money you have, the bigger the church you could have. And that's where the focus is on today. And I challenge you to tune in and listen to any program, either on the Christian radio, most programs. I have to catch up every now and then, so I flip over to TBN. Have you ever listened to TBN? What's the appeal on TBN?

For my. Watch that. OK. And Ephesians 210. We're not there yet. So back to my overview chart. So just to summarize in terms of what we said. What's the purpose of your spiritual gift? You have one, at least one, and it's for the edifying, for the building up spiritually of the body of Christ. Next question, the third question was this. Does faith, rest, and good works mix?

Are they contradictory to each other? Are they diametrically opposed to each other? Answer, absolutely not. They are consistent with each other. Faith and good works go together. And the thing is this, God, well, let's just look at it. Okay. Thank you, Marilyn, for being my straight lady. Okay. Excellent question. What good works are we talking about? Because when we think of good works, give me some examples of good works. Feeding the hungry. Okay. Witnessing. Okay. Good.

And I used to keep track. I used to put notches on my belt, how many people I witnessed to and how many came to the Lord. And what's interesting about that is I look back in those days and I say, all those people that prayed with me, did they really understand what they were praying for?

Or did they They just want to get rid of me. What do you want me to do? I'll do whatever you want me to do, but I just want you to get out of here. In fact, one guy who I witnessed to and prayed with, who worked for me, blew his brains out here in Aurora some years ago. And I said, you know, drinking and drugs. I mean, wow, and I saw his life and I said, Lord, you know, there was no sign in his life that he ever knew you. So, a lot of witnessing can be done in the flesh. I've done it. Okay. So, Marilyn's question.

What good works are we talking about? Ephesians 2.10, it says this, for we are his workmanship, and the word there is handiwork, we're his handiwork, created unto what? Good works, which were foreordained, or before ordained, that we should walk in them. Should we be doing good works?

Absolutely. Tell me, from looking at that passage of Scripture, whose good works are they? Okay. How do we know that, looking at that passage of Scripture? Okay. We are His workmanship. We're the vessels. We're His handiwork created in Christ Jesus unto good works. How do we know the good works are His?

Creator creates us for a purpose. I like to do arts and crafts things, but I create something with a purpose in mind for it to serve. And so if it decides it wants to do something else that I didn't create it for, then it's off-beam of my purpose in creation. Okay. All right, good.

When did that purpose start? You had a purpose to do something. It started at that point in time, right? When did God's purpose start for good works? Before the world began. They were preordained. Listen to this. has preordained a plan of good works. The plan is set. Did you listen to Tommy Franks yesterday in terms of the plan? No. They've got a plan in terms of what they're going to do. The plan is set. And there's objectives in the plan. And the plan is set. God has his plan of good works.

And what oftentimes is, we have our own plan of good works. And we're going to do what we think is going to please God, make us more acceptable to Him, make us more pleasing to Him. And so we start getting involved in, if you quote, good works which come out from the flesh, as opposed to, Lord, here am I, presenting ourselves, what would you have me to do? What is your good works?

So when you get to the book of James, I think it's James chapter four, it says something like this. And here's a critique on man. And man says, well, I think I'm going to go to thus-and-thus city tomorrow and do thus-and-thus, etc., etc. And the plan comes from man, and the belief never says, but Lord, if it be your will. What is your will?

That's where the difference is. So anyhow, the source of the good works is is God has the plan. It's been foreordained. And how will those, all those good works, will they be accomplished or can we lose? Good question. Good question. Okay, the question is, all of those good works, God has a plan. Will they be accomplished? Will God accomplish those good works?

We've been studying the Black Abbey's book on experiencing God. And his main thesis is that the work is God's work. And he is seeking us in an intimate relationship. He then invites us to join him in his work. And it isn't us deciding what the work is, but getting to know him well enough to respond to that invitation to take part in his work. It's going to happen whether I agree or not. But I get the opportunity to work with Him, and then I experience that blessing of taking part in His work. Okay. Maybe we could answer it this way.

God had a plan before the foundation of the world for all of mankind, right? He knew that man would sin, but He had a plan before the foundation of the world to And he had a purpose before the foundation of the world, right? And the purpose was to share his very glory with every single person ever born. Now, in order to do that, because of man's sin, then there had to be the cross. There had to be the death, the burial, and the resurrection and the seeding of the ascension and the seeding of our Lord Jesus Christ. Could man thwart that plan? Could man change it in any way, shape, or form? Did God complete that plan? So the thing is this, every single plan that God has He completes. He'll complete it.

And if we're not available, someone else is going to be available. Elijah thought, what did Elijah think? I mean, he did, you know, he did amazing work in terms of calling down the fire of the Lord on the altar, etc., etc. And he runs away, he says, I'm the only one. There's nobody else. What did God say? What did he say? He still had 7,000. Hey Elijah, I've got 7,000 that you have no clue, right? You have no clue. And the same thing is true with us, is that we have no clue who the Lord has out there to accomplish his plan.

But he's going to accomplish it. So that's not necessarily a personal thing then. He doesn't have personal work for me to accomplish. It sounds like he has work and it will be accomplished by somebody. I always thought that he had certain work for every individual.

Okay. But, alright, that's a good question. But notice what it says. For we. For you, Vani. are his handiwork, and you're created unto, in Christ, unto good works. And it's been said, he's got the plan, and he wants Vani to say, Lord, here am I. Plug me in, because I have no clue where you would like me to serve, to be a vessel. in the accomplishment of your plan for good works. which is in Jesus Christ, and the next is unto the good works. Right.

I don't know if I'm being clear. Yeah, and there is the progression, and because you are in Christ, and that's the only way that he's going to ever use anybody in his plan of good works, is if they are in Christ. So the focus can't be the in Christ part, because you can't have the good works in the in works of nothing. Absolutely.

Over the years of being a Christian, it seems like from time to time I've been pulled by the need to do good work. You know, what are they? Maybe the church needs a nursery babysitter. Maybe the church needs a Sunday school teacher. Maybe there's a mission field that I ought to be able to go out there and do that particular thing, short term or long term or whatever. And constantly being pulled by the need to do something. and I think that's the wrong emphasis that God puts us where we are in our families and they come first and we tend to overlook our ministry to our family members and to think of what we do at home and in our neighborhoods by being a friend and being available to neighbors just to be friendly and know them even if we don't have real open doors to witness to them, that that's part of the good works of God and that he has placed us all where we are and he does the good works through us without saying, hey you need to go do something that's not convenient for your family. Like maybe it's not convenient to teach Sunday school if you can't get everybody to church in time to be there. because the family is uncooperative or whatever it may be.

And I think a lot of times we need to help people that are in the church by helping them understand that we're not yanking you to do something that you're unable to do by laying a burden on your heart that you really ought to do this. And I think that's done a lot in the church. Okay. Everybody hear what Gail said? She brings up an excellent point. And if we ever get to spiritual gifts, we're going to get to what she's saying. And it is critical to understand that God may have you as a mom or a dad. And that's exactly where he wants you.

And you don't have to be out there worrying about I should be in the mission field, I should be here, I should be there, or whatever. I know when I first became a Christian, the emphasis was, well, now that you're a Christian, now you have to do something. And so there's always this emphasis on doing. And so there I went to witnessing school. Well, I should be witnessing three times a day, because that's what I was taught. as opposed to relaxing and walking by faith and saying, Lord, I don't have a clue.

The best thing is to come to the Lord and say, Lord, I don't have a clue. And that's the best position to be in. Because then when you say, I don't have a clue, but here am I, now you're in this if you will, a prayerful state and a ready state to be used by him, and you have no clue how he's going to use you. And most of the time, he'll use you and you don't even know that he's using you.

And it's only years later, somebody comes by and says, do you know something that you did this, did that? You say, oh really? See, that's That, to me, is being sensitive, and that walk by faith, abiding in Christ, and just that peripetuo, just walking just as you're going, wherever the Lord has you, in the job, as a mom, as a dad, is that He'll use you wherever you are. And you'll be ministering to people, and you won't even know it. And years later, somebody will come to you and say, wow. And then you see that it wasn't you. Okay. So, third question.

Does faith rest? And good works mix? Without resting in faith, there's no way that the Lord can use this in His plan of good works. So He has, as we saw in Ephesians 2.10, this predetermined plan of good works.

And we are His workmanship. We are his product. There's another translation of that word workmanship. I added vessel. We're his vessel. And that's all we are, is a vessel for his good works. And the example of the vine and the branches is the most illustrative. When Christ says, I'm the vine, you're the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Here's the vine, and here's the fruit, and we're the branch.

Does the branch determine the quality of the fruit, the timing of the fruit, or anything about the fruit? There is nothing. The only thing that the branch contributes to that fruit is that it's a vessel to get the nutrients to that fruit. It doesn't determine the quality, the size, the timing of that fruit. What determines it? Divine. Christ is divine. And we're just a branch. We're this vessel. We're this conduit. And so the bottom line is that God's desire is that His good works be part of your life and be part of my life.

The last question we have is, is this stewardship and giving financially? So how much should you give financially? And we glorify the Lord by your financial giving. And in the back of your handout, you've got about six sheets there that talk about giving financially. Let me try and summarize those six sheets in just a few words.

Number one, in talking about the tithe, talking about 10%, et cetera, 10% was a number that was put on the Israelites. It was a number that was put on the 11 tribes in order to support the 12th tribe, the tribe of Levi, who had responsibility for the care of the temple, etc. They didn't do any work. They didn't have animals and farm the land. And so God asked each of the other 11 tribes to contribute 10% to the tribe of Levi. 10% has nothing to do with our giving today.

So as you get into, like, 2 Corinthians chapter 9, it talks about our giving. And it says this, as a man purposes in his heart, so let him give. Not grudgingly or necessity, but God loves a cheerful giver, a hilarious giver. So giving, notice giving, as a man purposes in his heart, And what's interesting about that word purpose is the word purpose is a predetermined thing. You predetermine what you're going to give.

So you don't come to church, you notice that we don't have any baskets passed in this place. I don't know how many years ago it was, maybe about eight years ago when I was teaching And I'd sit up front, and I'd watch that basket go by, and I noticed that people would be looking at the guy next to him, how much he put in, and kind of maybe feel a little guilty.

He wasn't going to put in as much. And I saw this conflict, you know, just in the face of people. I said, oh, Lord, this is terrible. This is just terrible. So then I thought, I'm giving. And said, from this day forward, there is never going to be a basket passed in this place.

If you want to give, here's the way you give. As you purpose in your heart, you predetermine that. And you give, not grudgingly, or of necessity. And the word necessity, that someone creates a need If someone gets up there and says to you, we've got this program and we need funds to do this and we've got, etc. That's necessity. They're coming at, you know who they're coming at? The old man. And it's the old man that does the giving there. And God can't, He can't use that. So as you purpose in your heart, so let a man give.

So that's the summary of those six pages. In your handout, we go through a little bit more detail about the spiritual gifts and going through this wonderful passage in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 16. We have two minutes. Would you please turn to Ephesians chapter 4? I want to at least read it. Ephesians chapter 4, starting at verse 11.

It says this, And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto a measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Thus we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, making increase of the body unto the edifying itself in love." And you notice that the focus through this whole passage is edifying the body of Christ spiritually and edifying it in love.

So, what I've tried to do is summarize that passage and you can look at it in terms of the spiritual gifts. He says he gave some apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers And the apostles and prophets are the foundational gifts. They've been terminated. We don't have any apostles and prophets anymore. And the evangelists and pastors and teachers are the functional gifts in the church.

And by the way, every one of us in this room is a teacher in the sense that if you're a mom, you're a teacher. If you're a dad, you're a teacher. either teaching your children. If you're an older woman, you're a teacher. You're to teach the younger woman. So everybody in the body is a teacher to a degree.

So the purpose of the gifts, as it goes through, is for the perfecting. It means equipping of the saints. Our soldiers are over in Iraq right now, and they are equipped. They have the best equipment that technology at this point can produce. Our Abrams tanks can outshoot any tank that's out there. So it has a range of two miles. Any Iraqi tank has a range, if you will, of one mile. And we can just blow them out of the water, if you will. And every soldier is equipped. The backpacks that they carry, they are equipped. Have you seen the Iraqi soldiers that have been taken captive in their street clothes? They are not equipped. They are not soldiers.

So he equips us. It's a different kind of equipping, but he equips us spiritually. And it's for the work of the ministry, his ministry, and for the edifying, as we've been talking about, the spiritual growth of the body. And there's a goal. There's a goal of those spiritual gifts that we have.

And it says that we all come into the unity of the faith. That we all, every one of us, come into a unity in terms of what the Word of God says, that we know in our hearts what the Word of God says. And as we said before, that the faith is the body of truth in Scripture.

And all truth doctrine has a focus, and the focus is always on the Lord Jesus Christ. Always. The goal, again, the aspect of the goal that's listed in chapter four, that you come to the knowledge or the intimacy of Christ. And that word knowledge, epignosis, is a beautiful word. It's truth from Scripture, the objective truth from Scripture, believed on. Because you can have your head filled with all of the doctrine of Scripture, And you can know these 52 chapters, and you can know all of the doctrine of Scripture, but if you don't have ownership of it, if you're not resting in that truth, and if you don't see that that truth points you to a person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it develops an intimacy between you and the Lord Jesus Christ, then The doctrine is, forget about the doctrine.

It hasn't done its purpose. So that we all come to this knowledge or intimacy of Christ, but we have to know the body of truth first, and the body of truth focuses on Christ. And that you be perfect, and as I said before, complete, mature. And look at the measure, look at the standard, look at the measure of our completeness. It's the measure or the standard is the fullness of Christ. It's all who He is. You think you're going to get there? So when He comes, what? We'll be just like Him. But right now, He's forming. He's forming the Lord Jesus Christ in us as we behold Him through the Word of God.

Let's pray. Father, we are just thankful for your word in revealing to us, Father, your whole eternal purpose. And we just are so thankful that you have shared your glory with each and every one of us who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you, Father, for your eternal purpose in terms of our life here, informing the Lord Jesus Christ in us here, knowing, Father, that spiritually our position is that we're totally complete in Him and nothing has to be added. Father, we pray that these truths would unify each and every one of us that we would present ourselves to be available to you for your work in the ministry. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.