Please turn now on the bottom to the book of Romans, chapter 15, verse 14. Book of Romans in the New Testament, chapter 15. You can find it there on page 950. No, you can't. Page 900, yes you can. Sorry. You just keep finding it, there you go. Yes, page 950 in the Bible in front of you. I'm going to read from the very bottom of the previous page, Romans 15, reading from 14 to the end of chapter 15. Please give your attention to the Word of God. Remember, the I here is throughout the Apostle Paul. And the you here is the Christian church in Rome, a church he had not yet visited, but intended to, as you will see. So Romans 15, reading from 14 to the end of the chapter, please give your attention to the Word of God. I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you, very boldly, by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation. But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it. And indeed, they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When, therefore, I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. If you've been following along with us here in the Book of Romans, you notice a lot of three little words suddenly in what we've read. Three little words that we haven't seen so often throughout the book, but we have them a lot here. The three little words are I, me, and you. Why do we see so much of I, me, and you in this part of his letter? Well, he has, at this point, you could say, completed the laying out of the gospel. He's been laying it out since chapter 1, verse 16, where he said, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. And then he explains why he's saying that. And he explains it, and explains it, and explains it all the way through. And at this point, he's explained it. He has explained what the gospel is, why it is the power of God for salvation. to everyone who believes. But they in Rome still have a couple of questions. Like, so why are you writing to us? Or, why are you writing to us now? And so he doesn't simply break off the letter and say the end. He instead goes on to speak personally to them. He is aiming to establish a personal connection with this church, which has some people that he knows in it, as we'll see in chapter 16, but which is a place he's never been. And so he does not have a personal connection to most of them. So he's aiming to establish a personal connection. There's a strategy to that. But it's also at the heart of what we're called to do. We are to build real, personal relationships with people, and particularly with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We're called to love our neighbors, which is to say the people that we run into, whether on a daily basis or those that God drops in front of us, as in Jesus' parable, where the Samaritan proved to be a neighbor by caring for the guy who was just lying on the road. the man he had never seen before. Now, if you try to love, but you don't try to love actual people, well, that is sort of a recognizable tendency. And it was described 100 years ago by G.K. Chesterton. He described this other tendency, this tendency to love, but not love actual people. He satirized it this way. Oh, how I love humanity with love so pure and pringlish, and how I hate the horrid French who never will be English. The international idea, the largest and the clearest, is welding all the nations now except the one that's nearest. This compromise has long been known, the scheme of partial pardons in ethical societies and small suburban gardens, the villas and the chapels where I learned with little labor how to love my fellow man and hate my next door neighbor. Yes, that's a recognizable tendency, to be full of generalities, general ideas about how we are to love in general, but hate the guy who's across the street, who doesn't wave to us every day, and so prone to hate him. No, genuine Christian godliness is to be shown in personal connections. We are flesh and blood. You are here this morning. You may wish that you were there, but you are not there. You are here. And so you're called to love these people this morning. Even the weird ones. Even the strange ones. You're called to love these people. And when you are there, then you will be called to love those people. There's some other general ways to love at a distance, but for the most part, we have to love who's actually there with us. We're to have personal connections. And so the message of this passage that we've read today is this. We're to receive the gospel and live it out personally, humbly, spiritually, financially, and carefully. As you go through the passage, you see that. We're to receive this gospel and live it out personally. We've just talked about that. And humbly. We have to take our Christian teaching with the right heart. You notice how he begins there, I'm satisfied about you brothers that you are full of goodness. It's possible to be told things and to be insulted in the telling, insulted in the receiving. And he had used some sharp rhetorical questions. He had said things like this, you, why do you judge your brother? Or you? Do you not know that you who judge others will be judged by the same standard? He said things like this in the course of his letter. And he's certainly been teaching at great length, and teaching some basics, like all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Some basics, like the wages of sin is death, and the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So it would have been possible for them to say, Paul, I don't need your letter. I already know all this stuff. Why are you telling us this? and take offense that he had written it. And so he says, no, no, no. It's not that I thought you were lacking in any knowledge. It's not that I thought you were unable to teach one another. No, I wrote to you boldly by way of reminder. How many of you like to be reminded? A couple of you. How many of you like to be reminded by your husband or wife? I see fewer hands. How many of you like to be reminded by your mother? Good. That's wonderful. One? OK. We have one. All right. Yes, it's possible to take reminders with a proud heart. I don't need your reminder. But the things of the Christian life are the kinds of things that you know, but that you need to be reminded of. That you should love your sister. You know, but you find it difficult. So you need to be reminded. There are many such things that we require reminders of. And since we need the reminders, we need to be humble enough to receive the reminders. And not say, I don't need that. I already know it. No, we need to be humble and receive the reminders. So he says, it's not that I didn't think you didn't know, but I wrote boldly to you by way of reminder. Because I know you're human, and you need these reminders. And he says, and I wrote boldly because of the grace given me by God. It's as if he's saying, look, it's not my fault. I had to write the letter. I had to write the letter because God made me an apostle to the Gentiles. And you all are mostly Gentiles. So I had to write you. It's the job God gave me. It's not my fault. And Christendom says, you notice how he begins to use priestly language. Christendom is far enough back in history, back towards Jesus, that he lived in a world where there were still some pagan temples around. There were still some pagan priests around. And so they were still used to the idea of sacrifices being offered. Actual, take the animal, cut its throat, do it the right way, and offer it in sacrifice. And so Christendom says, nobody faults a priest for taking care to do the sacrifice right. Because everybody, Jewish or pagan, knew you don't just slit the bull's throat and toss it up on the altar. There's a way to do this. And it didn't matter whose temple it was. There was a way to do it. And the priest's job was to do it right. Everybody knew that. And so Paul here, he says, look, I have something similar I have to do. I am called upon, like a priest, to deliver God's message and to get it right. So don't be offended that I have written to you at such length, explaining to you things that, of course, you already knew. Now, if God called some to be apostles then, He still calls some now to be elders and teachers and pastors. And He calls them to deliver reminders. Some of you are so young, and I am so old, that you have been here pretty much every week of your life. And you've gotten many reminders. And as Calvin says, you know, it's an odd thing that God has done to call some mortal man, who may have a squeaky voice and a funny face, and to call on people to listen to him speak the message of God. And yet, that is how God has chosen to do it. I think it relates to the personal thing from before, that we ought to relate to one another personally. He does not write it in the clouds for us to read. He has a person talk to people. And so we're called on us to humbly accept the reminders that we get as part of the Christian teaching, that we must receive it with a humble heart, to hear some man say it and to say it again. So he says, don't be offended at my letter. I was reminding you. I was writing boldly to remind you. I was writing because of the grace given me by God. It's not my fault. I was doing the opposite. But he made me do this. And he says, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable. The offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable. Now, I think we're all Gentiles here today. And so we need to understand this phrase. When he says the offering of the Gentiles, does he mean the offering that Gentiles make? Or does he mean that we are the offering? Well, if you turn back to chapter 12, at verse 1, he said there, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. So which is it then? Well, we are to present The offering of the Gentiles is what the Gentiles present. We are to present ourselves. So the offering of the Gentiles is both. We are to present ourselves. We are to present ourselves to God for service. This is the offering of the Gentiles. He said that already way back in chapter 6. Present your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Present yourselves to God. Now, why would you want to present yourself to God? Because he said back in chapter 6, those who have been brought from death to life. This is why we present ourselves to God for obedience. Because He's brought us from death to life. Here's why the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. Without Jesus Christ, we are apart from God. We are under His wrath for our sin. We're in a state of darkness and death. But in Jesus, He has brought us near. When you believe in Jesus, He brings you from darkness to light and from death to life. And we're not to stay off at the perimeter seeking to melt back into shadows when He brings us to light. We're to come forward to Jesus, forward to the light. We're to present ourselves as instruments for righteousness. Now, a famous American evangelist said, come as you are. And he was correct. When you hear the voice of the gospel, repent and believe in Jesus. Repent then, however you are, whoever you are, whatever sins are on your head, you need to repent then. But that does not mean that having come as you are, that you are never to change. You're to come as you are so that he can teach you. What kind of service is pleasing to Him? You're to come as you are, make an offering of yourself as you are, so that He then can sanctify you. So it speaks here of the sanctification and bringing the Gentiles to obedience. That's what we're to do. We'll take Christian teaching with the right heart, humbly, knowing we need reminders, knowing we need to come immediately. We will not be cleaned up outside of God working in us. and knowing that we come and that we need to be instructive. We need to listen and repent so that we may know how we may present ourselves to God in a way that pleases Him. Now what happens when you do not take Christian teaching with a humble heart? You know, I heard of a man who came to a church like one of these and he heard some preaching that implicated him. It rebuked his sin. Not his alone, but his sin was certainly rebuked. So what did he do? He told the elders that he would never come to that church again if that guy was preaching. This is precisely the wrong way to take Christian teaching. If you are hearing Christian teaching, whether from me or anyone else, and you realize that your sin is being called out and that you are called on to repent, you are to attribute that to the Holy Spirit applying it to you. The preacher may or may not know that you're guilty of it. Usually not. He might. For you to hear the voice of God speaking to you in your conscience and to repent humbly, knowing that what God is about here is He's bringing the Gentiles to obedience in word and deed. And we need to be brought to obedience. God's not glorified by our disobedience. So we're to understand what glorifies God, our obedience. We're to take Christian teaching with a humble heart. And then we're to apply it in the power of the Holy Spirit. You'll notice, once you start hitting verse 15, you begin to see three other words a lot. You see God, you see Christ, and you see Spirit. And on throughout the rest of the chapter, you see a lot of God, and Christ, and Spirit. We see the apostle speaking of our triune God, and our triune God's work in his life. He says here, God the Father has given Paul grace. He's made him a minister of Jesus. Being a minister of Jesus, then Paul works for Jesus. And Jesus works through Paul. How? By the power of the Holy Spirit. And you notice here, there's some mention here, that the Holy Spirit, that Jesus has worked through Paul by the power of the Spirit, by word and deed. What's that mean? By the power of signs and wonders. by the power of the Spirit. That is, Paul is asserting that God did miracles through him. That would be the deed, the power of signs and wonders. And the Book of Acts lays out some of those miracles. The Book of Acts recounts a time in Cyprus when Paul and Barnabas were preaching, and a Jewish false teacher was trying to get the governor not to listen. And Paul said, you are going to be blind for a while. And the magician went groping about, and the governor believed. We're told another time when Paul and Silas were going through a Greek town, and a slave girl who had an evil spirit was following along behind, saying, these men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the word of salvation. All of which is accurate, by the way. And Paul didn't want her to be possessed by an evil spirit, and didn't want this testimony either. He didn't need this witness. And so Paul cast out the demon. After that, they were in jail. And we're told that God sent an earthquake so as to free all those in the jail, although they did not leave. And we're told on another occasion that Paul preached so long that someone fell out the window. James will have to climb up a little farther if he wants to fall out the window. He fell out the window and died. And Paul went down and prayed and laid on the young man, and he lived again. You see here, Paul did not have amnesia. He was well aware of what God had done through him. And you hear an indication that this is not stuff that Luke makes up in his book of Acts. But rather, Paul knows what happened. There he is. I have been Jesus' servant. He's worked through me. And I'm not going to boast of anything except what Jesus did. Because I can't, he's saying, I can't heal anybody. But Jesus has done this through me. Now I want to point out to you that miracles and science have the same presuppositions. If you want to do science, what do you have to believe first? You have to believe that there is an external world outside of your own head. Otherwise it wouldn't be science, it'd be psychology. You have to believe that that external world has a regular way that it works. If there's no regularity to it, then what are you trying to find? And you have to believe that you can find out the regular way of the world. That's what you need to believe in order to do science. I think there's an external world that operates a certain way and I can find it out, find some of it out, with some disciplined investigation. And we call that disciplined investigation science. Now, what does it take to look at something and say, that is a miracle? To look at some event and say, that is a miracle, you have to believe, first, that there is an external world outside of your own head. Otherwise, you're having a trip. Secondly, you have to believe that there is a regular way that things work, and that's not it. If you don't know the regular way things work, then you cannot identify this as an exception. You just say, well, things happen. And thirdly, of course, you have to believe that you know the regular way that things work. And that's how you can identify this as not the way things work, as a miracle. Now, some scientists want to go farther and say, no, no, no. In science, you have to believe that everything has a physical cause. And in that everything has to, you've left any necessary presuppositions for science. You're not in the realm of science because you can't scientifically prove that. No, you have a philosophical commitment to the idea that everything has a physical cause. That's not a scientific commitment, it's a philosophical one, unproven and unnecessary to the work of science. So bear that in mind. Science is in the business of finding physical causes and that's great. That does not mean that everything has a physical cause. or that God is unable to do whatever He likes in the world that He made. Now, if you read Scripture, you will see that Scripture spends a fair amount of time pointing out miracles. That's because that's what God sent them for. To help people, yes, but also to give evidence of who His servants were and what His message is. And so the Word of God, of course, does spend some time. But if you actually pull out a timeline and you start to say, When were there miracles? You'll discover that most people in biblical times lived their entire lives and never saw one. In other words, the Bible is not full of a miracle on every page. What miracles did Abraham see? He saw the aftermath of God's judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. And he saw the miracle that in his old age they did have a kid. And then Isaac doesn't seem to see any miracles. And the miracle that Jacob sees is that his beloved son has an unlikely dream, and years later it's fulfilled. But that's not exactly what you'd normally mean by miracle. And so on. For David to defeat Goliath was unexpected and a sign of God's blessing, but not a miracle, not in the normal physical sense. So God sent miracles in great number at the time of Moses and Joshua. a great number at the time of Elijah and Elisha, and a great number at the time of Jesus and the Apostles, to authenticate this message, and to show that God is calling you to believe this. And God continues to call us to believe it, but it is not so new and strange and difficult for most of us to believe. Now it is difficult for some to believe, some who are in hostile lands. And so if you want to ask, are there miracles today, Well, God certainly answers prayers, as we'll see in a minute. But in terms of the convincing miracle stories, the ones I hear that are convincing tend to come from the mission field, and particularly in the new mission field. Here's one that is not so much to authenticate as to help God's servants, but happened about 150 years ago that our denomination said, our country has been very sinful in how it's treated the Aboriginal, that is, Native Americans, and the color of his African-American populations. And so he began to do mission work to the freed slaves and to the Native Americans in Oklahoma. And so two men went out with their horses, and they got out far off, far away from the military post, and they needed to claim some section of land, and the US government had come through and put down little markers, but they put down the markers, little short things, in the wintertime when there was no grass, and now it was summertime, and the grass was six feet high. How are you going to find your markers? So the horses ran away overnight, and the two men had to go find their two horses, Fortunately, the grass was six feet tall, so the horse would leave the trail. So the one followed the one horse. He was grazing next to one of these markers. And the other man followed the other horse. He was grazing next to a second marker, from which they could find the rest of what they needed to find. That's the kind of story you get from missionaries going into new mission fields. Now it is to help God's servants more than to authenticate. I don't think the Comanche saw this exactly. But you'll see, by the power of signs and wonders, God spreads his kingdom. Paul here speaks of the three divine persons working in him. He also tells us that they work in us as well. God is the father of hope for us, for he gives us hope in the person of his Son. In his Son, we are to believe that Jesus came down from heaven, that he died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. And we are to be sanctified by the Spirit. For the ordinary work of the Spirit is also powerful to change us, to bring us to faith. This ordinary work of the Spirit is a very powerful thing. And so we're to receive Christian teaching personally, apply it personally, apply it humbly, apply it spiritually, and apply it financially. Paul goes on then to speak of his past, present, and future, and there was a financial aspect to all of it. He says that he has preached the gospel from Jerusalem round to Illyricum. Where is Illyricum? If you're as old as me or older, it's Yugoslavia. And if you're younger, it's Croatia or Serbia. So that's Illyricum. And so he's saying, I've preached, and if you can picture that part of the world, He says, I've been going around the Mediterranean Sea, all the way up on the east side, and I've gone across the north, halfway across. And now I want to get to you, Rome, the beginning of the second half, the western half. Now, how did he make all those travels? Well, the church in Antioch had sent him and Barnabas out. And to send people out is to say they sent them out with some money so they could buy tickets and food. And as Paul had gone on, at times he'd worked himself with the trade that he had learned. But when financial support came from the church in Philippi, then he began to preach full time. So he'd done these many missionary journeys, supported by various churches along the way. That was his past. His present, he says, I am going to Jerusalem because Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor in Jerusalem. Now, Macedonia is northern Greece, and Achaia is southern Greece. He's probably writing from Greece. And he says, before I go west to you and Rome, I have to go east from Greece to Jerusalem, carrying this money with a team, because he had an eye to financial propriety. Each of the churches giving money also sent someone along to report back on what happened to their money. This was a major project of Paul's. to gather donations from the Gentile churches that he had started and take it to support the poor in Jerusalem. Why was this a major project of his? Well, one, because the poor needed it. Two, because he was seeking to cement peace between the Jewish branch and the Gentile branch of the church. And three, because he wanted to fulfill Isaiah. It says towards the end of Isaiah, that Jerusalem should rejoice because the wealth of the Gentiles shall flow to you. He says that repeatedly at the end of Isaiah. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to Jerusalem. And Paul says, OK, good goals are the goals that God has said he's going to achieve. And if God has said he's going to achieve that, then that's a goal for me to be a part of what will happen. And right at the end of Isaiah, there's a mention of Tarshish, which is thought to be Spain. So he says, having completed one aspect of this in the present, I hope in the future, with your help, to get to Spain. And how are they going to help him get to Spain? Well, for one thing, he anticipates that for once, when he gets to Rome, he won't have to start the church. It's a difficult thing to go into a city and try to start a church by yourself or with your small team. He says, but in Rome, I hope I can come and have some rest with you all. And in Rome, I hope I can pick up a couple more good workers from you all." But he's also saying, and in Rome, I hope that you will make some contribution so we can buy our next set of tickets and take our next boat. Because it's actually a fairly long way to get from Rome to Spain. So he's saying to them, there's a financial implication to the gospel. There's the care for the poor. And there's the support of extending this kingdom on farther, sending the missionaries on their way. And we also want to support the local church, and to support the poor, and to support the expansion of the kingdom all throughout the world. If we were to receive the gospel, live it out personally, humbly, spiritually, financially, and prayerfully, we see this last. He says, beginning in verse 30, I appeal to you brothers to strive with me in your prayers And he's praying for two things. Help me to deliver it from the unbelievers in Judea, and pray that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. In other words, he's saying as the apostle to the Gentiles and the former persecutor, I have trouble with the Jews back in Israel, and I got some tensions with the Jewish Christians back in Israel. So pray for me that I'll be delivered from this group and acceptable to this group. And he asks for their prayers, from which we are to see that God listens to prayers. Sometimes we start to say, now, wait a minute. If God already knows everything that's going to happen, in fact, God has decided everything that's going to happen, then why do I pray if God already has decided it? It's a good question, but there's a good answer. The answer is because God is pleased to answer his people's prayers. God is pleased to incorporate our prayers into his plan. God is pleased to ordain that we will pray and he will answer. And that is how the thing will be achieved. So we are called on to pray. And if someone says, do you believe in the power of prayer, you might say, well, I find that an unhelpful way to say it. I believe in the power of God and that God answers the prayers offered in the name of his son. And that is why prayer is powerful, because God is powerful. It's not praying in and of itself that is powerful. You'll notice again how he thinks and try you in terms. He appeals by the Lord Jesus and by the love of the Spirit to pray to God on my behalf. And that is a normal pattern for our triune prayer. We pray usually to God the Father, in the name of the Son, by the power of the Spirit. We may pray to any of the three persons, but this is the normal pattern. We pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, by the power and with the help of the Holy Spirit. Now, in conclusion, I want you to tell you how this turned out. Because on this occasion, we have not only the prayer request, We also, in the Book of Acts, have the actual events that ensued. What happened when Paul went to Jerusalem with the offering for the saints, and he intended to get to Rome next? How did that work out? He's asking, please pray for me. Pray for me that I'll be delivered, and I'll be acceptable, so that by God's will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. What happened? Well, as he went to Jerusalem, he had Christians telling him all along the way, don't go. You're going to get in trouble. And he said, I have to go. And when he got there, he had peace with the Jewish Christians. He met with their leader. The leader said, it's good to see you. Now, here's some things you need to do. Do these things, and it'll all be good. But was he delivered from the unbelievers? That depends on what you mean by delivered. He was accused of bringing a Greek Gentile into the temple. He hadn't done that. He wasn't going to go there. But they accused him of it. And a riot started. And they wanted to kill him. And the Roman group had to run in there and save him. And they put him on trial in front of the Sanhedrin. And the Romans had to run in there and save him again. And 40 men took an oath to kill him. Wouldn't eat till they killed him. But he had a relative found out about it. And so the Romans sent him off to some distance, at which point he was then kept in jail until they came up and made charges against him. They couldn't prove the charges, so he was not convicted. But he wasn't freed either. And so two years later, they had a change of governor, and he was still there in jail. And at that point, the new governor wanted to send him back to Jerusalem. He knew he'd be killed, so he had to appeal to Caesar, who lived in Rome. And so after years in jail, He got on a ship to go to Rome, as a prisoner. Only the ship was shipwrecked. And they landed in Malta. And at length, finally, as a prisoner, after all these sufferings, he made it to Rome. What happened as he approached Rome? It says in Acts 28, that the brothers in Rome, that is, the church, the people he wrote to, These people who got this letter. Some of them heard he was coming and they came out to meet him. They came miles out of the city to meet him. And it says, and when Paul saw them, he took courage. You know, even Paul could be beaten down. Even Paul could get discouraged. Even Paul could want some encouragement from some brothers and needed so that he could take courage. And so indeed, when he got to them, he was refreshed in their company. It may not be the case that he came in all joy, but he was refreshed by their company. And so in that unexpected way, he did get there. And he did get to meet with them. And he did get to be an encouragement to them there. Have you seen the blessing of a personal connection? And now you can establish it through a letter when you cannot go yourself. And so we're to receive the gospel, live it out personally and humbly, spiritually and financially, and prayerfully as God calls us to love our neighbor and to walk by the power of his spirit. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have called us out of darkness to light, that you've called us to hope in you, and to present ourselves to you for obedience. And so Lord, we pray that you'd help us to do this, and to walk by your Spirit, and to know your hope and your joy. Help us, Lord, to maintain courage, whatever suffering may come. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.