Four Things Every Christian Needs - 19

Most Bible scholars believe that 1 Thessalonians was the earliest of the 13 epistles that Paul wrote that are included in our New Testament Scriptures. It was written from the city of Corinth to the church in the city of Thessalonica. Corinth being in the southern part of the Greek peninsula and Thessalonica in the northern part. Paul had founded the church in Thessalonica on his second missionary journey along with the church in Philippi and the one in Berea before he went to the southern part of the peninsula.

Preached in Athens, though did not leave a church behind, but then labored for a year and a half in the city of Corinth and there established a church. And it is from that location that he's writing back now to the Thessalonian congregation to answer some of the questions which they had and to encourage them and to exhort them in regard to Christian living. It seems that the concerns that they had addressed to him primarily had to do with the second coming of Christ and some of the details about that second coming which they were not clear about and so Paul devotes a good portion of this book to that subject. The second coming, as you know, is mentioned in all five of the chapters. It takes up a sizable segment of chapter four and another sizable segment of chapter five. But as we've seen as we come to the last part of chapter five, we come to a series of final exhortations.

It's like Paul says, before I close, I have to tell you this and this and this and this and this and this and this. Don't forget any of these things. They're all important to your Christian life. And as we come now down to the final verses, we find three exhortations and a final benediction. The first benediction we've already examined, but now we come to three exhortations. We might say three final exhortations and one final benediction. These are Paul's parting words to a beloved church from its beloved founder, who is none other than the beloved Apostle Paul.

And so what do we find in these final verses? Four things that every Christian needs. Four things that every Christian needs. Four vitally important elements for healthy Christian living.

What are they? Number one, the prayers of God's people. Every Christian needs the prayers of the people of God. And Paul, in recognition of that, says in verse twenty five, brethren, pray for us. A strong appeal by the Apostle Paul asking for the prayers of this church on his behalf. The prayers of God's people are necessary, urgent, reciprocal and unifying.

They are necessary. Brethren, pray for us. Paul recognized his insufficiency without divine help. Paul felt that very keenly. As marvelous as his ministry had been across the Roman world, as many as had come to Christ through the preaching of his word. As many churches as had been founded by his labors in various cities, he still did not feel sufficient for the assignment that had been given to him. In fact, he felt very keenly his insufficiency and knew that the only remedy for his weakness is God's strength. The only solution for his lack of power is divine power. The only way to make his labors fruitful is for God to make them fruitful. And so recognizing all of these things, he appeals to the people of Thessalonica to pray for him. And if an apostle like this needs the prayers of God's people, what about you?

What about me? We obviously need them as well. We obviously need them more, surely. Now, prayer is one of those mysterious elements of the Christian faith, of which there are a number of mysterious elements. It's really surprising how many things in the Christian faith on the one hand are simple and on the other hand are complex. Prayer is simple. It's simply talking to God.

A child can understand that. And we teach our children to pray. Don't you love to hear little children pray?

Don't you love those little prayers that we often teach our children? God is something. God is good. Let us thank him for our food.

What's the first word? God is great. God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food.

By his hands I must be led. Thank him for our daily bread and so forth. A child can understand the practice of prayer, can understand the elements of prayer, and yet the greatest theologian can't understand the complexity of prayer. In the light of God's sovereignty and the fact that he has purposed all things that will come to pass, how do our prayers figure into those purposes of God if they are already determined? If his counsels have determined those purposes in eternity past, what can our prayers do?

It's a mysterious thing, isn't it? And so prayer on the one hand is simple. The prayer on the other hand is complex.

But this much we know that we don't understand all of the mechanisms involved. We do know that God incorporates the prayers of his people into his designs and his purposes. That's part of his plan.

That's part of his purposes. Yes, even our prayers determined by God and designed to be used by God in the carrying out of his purposes in this present day. And so we can say that prayer is necessary because God has designed it to be necessary. It is a necessary part of God's working in this world. Prayer is necessary because God has commanded it.

And whatever God commands us to do, it is necessary for us to obey and to do. And so beyond the fact that if we have been worked upon by the Spirit of God, we recognize our weakness, we sense our need, and that in itself is enough to show us the necessity of prayer, we also realize that it is necessary by the purpose and plan and command of God. And so we are not surprised that the apostle in the closing of this epistle cries out, Brethren, pray for us. These prayers are necessary. But the prayers of God's people are not only necessary, but they're also urgent. Brethren, pray for us. And some translations, not mine, but some translations have an exclamation point at the end of that word us. And that's because the structure of the grammar indicates that this is a very emphatic and urgent request.

And it is in the present tense. Brethren, keep on praying for us. Brethren, don't stop praying for us.

Paul seems to recognize that these people are praying for him, but he covets their prayers all the more and implores them to be faithful and consistent in their praying. And so because prayer is necessary, it is also urgent. Because of the vehement opposition to God's people and to the work of God, prayer is urgent. Because of the enemies of the Christian faith in the lives of those around us who are not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, prayer is urgent. Because of satanic power against God and against all things that God is doing and against the people of God, prayer is very urgent. Prayer is urgent because this is how God's people prevail over the opposition. Prayer is urgent because of the needs of this hour, the needs that were in Paul's day and in his hour, and the needs that we have in our day. And we see needs all around us. It seems like every passing day brings some new crisis, some new urgency, some new need.

What should that cause us to do? Brethren, pray in the light of all of these urgencies that are around us. And prayer is urgent because of the potential of the gospel. We know that the gospel is what? The power of God unto salvation and is able to overcome the opposition of the enemy.

It is able to snatch people out of Satan's kingdom and put them in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God does that in response to believing prayer. No wonder Paul says, Brethren, brethren, pray, pray, keep on praying for us. For the great prayers of God's people are necessary. The prayers of God's people are urgent. The prayers of God's people are reciprocal. Paul has mentioned three times prior to this reference, has mentioned prayer. And at each of the other times, it was Paul talking about his prayers for them.

You can trace it backwards if you want to. Chapter five, verse twenty three. The first benediction is a prayer. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's Paul's prayer for them. Now he says, will you please pray for me?

Chapter three, verse 10. He says, night and day, praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith. He was praying for them and he was praying that he might be allowed to come and to visit them again. So he is praying for them. But now he says, brethren, you please pray for us. He and Silas and Timothy. In fact, clear back to the beginning of the epistle.

Chapter one, verse two. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. We are regularly praying for you.

Now, brethren, can we count on you please to pray for us? Paul recognized that prayer is reciprocal. He prays for them.

They pray for him. And together, God works in concert with these prayers. We need to pray for one another and we need the prayers of one another. From time to time, some of you will come to me and say, Pastor Barkman, I would like to ask you to pray about this or to pray about that, and I'm happy to do that. And I try to be faithful to keep those promises and to pray for those that I tell, that I respond to in this way and tell you that I will pray for your needs. But in our conversation, you will often hear me say, please pray for me, particularly when someone says something about I benefited from the sermon this morning.

Appreciate your labors. I will say, please pray for me. Please uphold me in prayer.

I'm not sufficient to minister God's word. I can't be a blessing to God's people without divine help. If you have felt any help and blessing at all, then here's what I want you to do. Pray for me, brethren. Pray for me. I need your prayers just like you need mine. And we all need the prayers of one another.

Prayer is reciprocal, but fourth, the prayers of God's people are unified. And for that, I focus on that word brethren. It's the 15th time in this epistle that he's referred to the brethren that is used as term. But this is the only time that the word brethren is found in the emphatic position in a sentence. It's more obvious in the Greek. It's more obvious to those who read Greek that there is a special emphasis upon the word brethren here, more than all the other 14 times that he has mentioned that term.

It's always important. The brethren, the brothers and sisters in Christ, the people of God. There are important things to be to be considered when we consider the brethren. But here the term brethren is emphatic.

What does that mean? It is urgent that the brethren pray for one another. And it is a body issue. It is a Christian matter. Clearly and obviously, Paul would not ask the unconverted to pray for him, but his emphasis upon brethren reminds us that this is something that brethren can do that others cannot do. This is something that brethren are privileged to do that others cannot do. This is something that brethren have a responsibility for one another in. If you are one of the brethren, then you have a responsibility to pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Being privileged by the grace of God to be made one of the children of God, one of the brothers or sisters in the body of Christ, lays upon you a special obligation to pray for one another. It ties us together in the body of Christ.

It's something that only brethren can do. And so it makes us who are brethren unified in this matter of prayer. Prayer is an expected activity among brothers in Christ. Prayer unites the people of God in the common faith. No one else can pray for us because if they don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they have no foundation for their prayer. They have no access to God through prayer.

But brethren do, all born-again brethren do. We have a common faith in that faith finds a unifying role in our common prayers one for another. Yes, prayer unites the people of God in common endeavors and common concerns. When we send out a prayer request far and wide asking other people to pray for us, sometimes we say, I wish you would help me to pray for this. I wish you would ask your church to pray for me, you might say to a friend who goes to another church.

I would like to be added to your prayer sheet. What are we doing? Don't think that what we're doing is adding strength to the persuasion that we're applying to God to somehow bend his will in our direction. If a few people pray, maybe God won't do it.

If a lot of people pray, maybe God will. That's not what we're doing. If you think that's what we're doing, then you've misunderstood. That's not the reason why we want to multiply the number of people praying, as many as possible.

What are we doing? We are unifying the people of God around a common concern. It honors the Lord when his people are focused on common concerns, common endeavors, common needs that we are all focusing on, looking to heaven for the answer to and rejoicing together when the answer comes. It's a unifying matter to pray. Every one of us need the prayers of others. So four things that every Christian needs. Number one, every Christian needs the prayers of other believers. Number two, every Christian needs the fellowship of the saints. Verse 26, greet the brethren with a holy kiss.

Can't hardly read that without smiling. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. Now, we have actually addressed this before because Paul says this four times in his 13 epistles and four of them he concludes with this statement. Greet the brethren with a holy kiss.

Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians. And we have preached our way through all of those other epistles, haven't we, in this pulpit. And so in every one of these times when we've come to the conclusion, we've come to this command, greet one another with a holy kiss.

And we've had to offer some kind of understanding and explanation for this seemingly strange command. And not only does Paul mention it, command it actually four times, but Peter does once as well. He doesn't call it a holy kiss, he calls it a kiss of love, but he says greet one another with a kiss of love. And so five times in the New Testament we are commanded to greet one another with a kiss.

Now, are we all negligent? Are we all disobedient if we're not going around kissing one another? The Bible tells us to do that. Is this a command or is it not? Well it clearly is, it's in the imperative. But it is, I'm convinced, a culturally adjusted imperative. The imperative is not the mechanics of the kiss, but the imperative is the communication that the kiss in that day and culture rendered to one another. The kiss itself is a greeting specific to certain cultures and it was very common in that culture. That's the way the unconverted people greeted one another.

And so when Paul is commanding this, he's not commanding Christians to do something that they didn't do before they were saved, or that others were doing in the culture of that day. They were all greeting one another in this way, it was very common. But it's not universal, the act of kissing one another is not universal to all cultures, as well we know. But the intended message is universal. And the culturally adjusted activity that communicates that message is certainly adaptable and imperative to us today.

Just as imperative to us today as it was in Paul's day. For us it's generally a warm handshake. Sometimes beyond other things beyond that, but always that, that's always safe and that's always acceptable in western culture. In fact one of the translators translated this phrase, greet one another with a warm handshake. Another one said greet everyone with a handshake all around, which is a pretty good way of understanding this command in the culture in which we live. And in some places it's perfectly acceptable to greet one another with a hug, in addition to or instead of a handshake. So whatever is the culturally accepted way to warmly greet one another, that's what Paul's commanding when he says greet one another with a holy kiss.

In other words, we are commanded to practice a similar greeting to the one that was employed in that day. And our greetings, like theirs, should be warm and wholesome and inclusive and intentional. To greet one another with a kiss can hardly be anything less than warm. In fact it makes some people a little uncomfortable even when we realize the kiss was only on the forehead or on the cheek, but that's getting a little too close, a little too warm, I'd rather not quite go that far. Well, please understand though that what is communicated is a warm greeting, a warm welcome, a warm act of love and fellowship extended to others. The kiss was expected in that culture.

In fact, its omission was a mark of unfriendliness. We read one example of that in Luke chapter 7 when Jesus was invited to dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee. And that's the occasion when a woman came in and wept and washed his feet and wiped them with her hair. And the Pharisee objected to that. And Jesus spoke to him.

Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss.

But this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You gave me no kiss. Christ made note of that. Christ recognized that there was something communicated by failing to do that.

That was a mark of unfriendliness, a mark of distance, a mark of even hostility that Simon would fail to give the customary cultural greeting of that day. And Christ made note of it and pointed it out. You omitted that which was expected. You omitted that which indicated warmth and acceptance and friendliness.

I took note of that. I understood what you were communicating. You're communicating something either way. You're either communicating warmth and love and friendliness or by your failure to do it. You are communicating coldness and indifference and distance. And in your case, that's what you communicated by not giving me the customary kiss. And so as we practice our culturally adjusted greetings in our day, though they may not be and I would rather recommend that they not be a kiss, they should be warm, a warm handshake all around.

They should be wholesome. Paul says, greet one another with a holy kiss. And that is the problem with the kiss because sometimes it's easy to cross the boundaries and to go from a holy kiss to a not so holy kiss.

That's part of the problem. That, of course, is why the kisses of greeting were on the forehead and on the cheek instead of on the lips. But some people are prone to allow carnality to enter into their customs and they can even turn that which ought to be a completely holy and wonderful Christian act of godly love into something which is sensual. That can happen with the hug. That's why not everybody is comfortable with the idea of hugging.

Some people are, some people aren't. But even where it's acceptable and customary, you have to watch out. There tend to be some people who try to, seem to be trying to put more into that than just simply a holy hug, a holy Christian greeting. And enough said.

We'll move on from that. But this should be wholesome, a holy kiss, not sensual, not subject to abuse. When it comes to this Christian greeting of the kiss, it is interesting that I learned that that subject came up for discussion in a number of church councils over the centuries because it was being abused by some. And so after a while, the edict came out that this can only be practiced with men kissing men and women kissing women. Before that, it was okay.

But someone's abusing it. And so the edict comes out. We're going to have to draw a line here in order to keep people from abusing what should be a holy expression of Christian love. And finally, in about the 10th or 11th century, I've forgotten exactly, the edict came out.

We're just going to do away with it altogether. No more kissing in Christian assemblies. And that was now forbidden in the Western church, but it continued in the Eastern churches and still does to this day. But why don't we do that in the West? This is why. Because it did become abused and it was eventually omitted.

It was eventually prohibited. But it should always be wholesome, a holy kiss. And what it tells us is that though it should always be holy and wholesome, that we need ways to demonstrate Christian love physically, not just by saying so, but something more.

If just simply saying, hello, how are you? I love you in the Lord were enough, then we wouldn't be talking about holy kisses or holy handshakes or holy hugs, would we? That's something that's a little bit more.

It's a little more physical. And evidently is something that is needed to carry out fully the intention of what is to be communicated among the people of God. Thirdly, besides being warm and wholesome, it should be inclusive. Greet some of the brethren with a holy kiss, the ones you like the best?

No. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. Let no one be omitted. This is an admonition and a warning that in our greeting of one another in the body of Christ, we don't just greet our special friends.

We don't warmly greet those that we like and that we have a good relationship with and ignore others, turn our backs upon others. That is an offense against Christ and against the body of Christ. Because keep in mind, folks, that we don't choose our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Christ does. That's a hard lesson for some people to learn. We live in this age of, what should I say? Of independent thought and independent action and I choose this and I choose that and I decide to do this and I decide not to do that.

And I'll change my friends, thank you. If God chose you, how else did you get into the family of God? And God chose that other person that you may not find particularly attractive.

Maybe he doesn't find you attractive either. And God didn't find either one of you attractive. He chose us in our sinfulness, didn't he? While we were his enemies, Christ died for us. And so if they're good enough for God, if God has chosen them, they must be good enough for you and for me.

So we don't leave anybody out. Great all the brethren, all the brethren in our physical expressions of welcome and love. We warmly welcome all believers into our circle of fellowship in the body of Christ.

The fellowship of the saints and practicing this greeting is to be warm, it's to be wholesome, it is to be inclusive and it is to be intentional. Great all the brethren, that's an imperative, that's a command. Why this reminder?

Why this command? Surely you're doing it anyway. Well, because we can forget or we can neglect. We may devalue this practice, consider it trivial or unimportant, but we can't because it's commanded. It is an imperative.

You must do this. Great all the brethren with a holy kiss. It's possible in our humanness that we may forget. We become preoccupied. We become distracted by something else and just are unmindful of those around us. So this reminder, don't neglect to greet one another warmly when you come together in the body of Christ.

Or lest we become self-centered, more concerned with how I feel or more bound up by my insecurities. I don't know how that person feels towards me, so I don't know if I should reach out to them or not. Put that behind you, that's selfish, that's self-centered. That's thinking about you instead of thinking about them and thinking about Christ.

Stick out your hand and warmly greet them. I don't feel comfortable with that. Then grow in grace and knowledge. Quit being a baby Christian. Quit being immature and start doing what is commanded. We must be intentional in warm welcoming behavior toward all the saints.

So let's see, what are we talking about? Four things every Christian needs. Number one, every Christian needs the prayers of the saints. Number two, every Christian needs the warm fellowship of the saints in person.

Number three, every Christian needs the ministry of God's word. Verse 27, I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren. Interestingly here, Paul, for the first time in this whole epistle, switches from the plural pronoun we and us to the singular pronoun I.

Why is that? He doesn't tell us why. Some have said, well, this is the point where Paul took the pen from the hand of the amanuensis, the secretary, and wrote the final words himself, as was his custom, possibly.

Other explanations have been given. Others have said, and I think this is probably at least part of the answer, that even though Paul has been addressing the church in terms of us and we, we all know who's really writing this epistle. It's I, Paul. He's including the others, and no doubt they read what he wrote and approved of it, and Paul included them, as it were, as co-authors. But really, Paul is the author, and when he comes to this one, that comes across strongly because there's something different about this exhortation that you don't find in any of them anywhere else in the book. In fact, you're not going to find what I'm going to explain to you now anywhere else in the New Testament.

What is that? What Paul does here is puts them under a solemn oath. When he says, I charge you, that's not the only time you'll find the English word charge in the New Testament, but when he says, I charge you, this is the only time that this word, this Greek word, that means to put people under oath, to bind them by an oath, it's translated I adjure you in some translations. Paul adjures you by the Lord, which means he binds them under oath, and implies that they are under divine penalty if they ignore this command. It is the strongest command, the strongest exhortation, the strongest requirement that is found anywhere among all the exhortations of this epistle, because it's the only one that is bound by an oath, and therefore it obviously has the highest priority. Why?

Why this one? The only conclusion I can draw is because Paul knew full well that in this, he was acting as a conduit for the Spirit of God, that what he was writing was not his words. It is in fact the inspired word of God. He recognized at this point that he was one of the holy men whom God has chosen to speak to divine revelation or to write divine revelation as spoken by the Spirit of God, and therefore this receives the highest priority. Paul knew that this was inspired scripture, and therefore I bind you under an oath that this must be read in the congregation.

This above all things is most important of everything that I have said. You say, well, what scripture did they have in these churches, the Old Testament? And they used it.

They read it. They had the Old Testament scriptures and they read them, but what they had to do was what we find examples of all throughout the New Testament, namely they had to take the Old Testament scriptures and then understand them in the light of the coming of Christ, interpret the Old Testament scriptures in the light of New Covenant truth, and though they had the Old Testament to help them do that, they still needed other help to do it aright, and so that's where the role of the prophet comes in, and the early churches had prophets that spoke prophecy to help them understand Old Testament truth in the light of the New Covenant and the coming of Christ and the fulfillment, but what they need ongoing is New Testament scriptures. If they're going to understand Old Testament truth properly in the light of the fulfillment that comes in Christ, they've got to have New Testament scriptures, and up until then, up until now, they had none, but Paul is saying in effect, here's the first one.

Here's the down payment. Here's the first deposit of the New Testament. You're getting what you desperately need, namely New Testament scripture to go alongside your Old Testament scripture, and I put you under oath that it be read without fail to the church.

And though they were no doubt already reading Old Testament scripture, you see that this epistle is read right along with the Old Testament scripture. It's scripture too. It's telling us that the reading of scripture is an integral component of public worship.

It is. The ministry of God's word is of highest priority. The ministry of God's word is a corporate activity. This epistle is to be read aloud. That's what the Greek word means.

In classical Greek, that's exactly what this word means. Read it aloud in the assembly of the saints. This ministry of God's word requires comprehensive involvement. Be sure that this is read aloud to all the holy brethren.

Now if you'll think about that, that becomes more challenging than it might seem at first. How often when we have an assembly of the saints at Beacon do we have all the members present without exception? In my experience, never. Was there ever a time when we did? Maybe in the very early days when we didn't have many shut-ins for quite a while. It took a while to develop shut-ins.

We've got them now. And I would suppose that in the church of Thessalonica, it was a fairly new church, they may not have had any shut-ins. It might not have been a physical difficulty to get everybody there, but it certainly required some special attention to make sure that everybody came because there's always somebody who's got a conflict, who's not feeling well, who's got something that's going on. The command is that this book be read to all the holy brethren, no exceptions. Every member must be present. So how could they assure that that happened?

Did they take attendance before they read the epistle? Let's see who's here. Let's call the roll. Anybody missing?

Yeah. Jacob's missing. Please run over to his house and bring him.

Get him here. We've got to have everybody here. Did they call the roll? They may have to take attendance. Did they go round up the people who weren't there?

They may have. Did they read it on more than one occasion? All right, we read this last Lord's Day, but there were three of you missing, kind of like Thomas on the first day when the disciples gathered together when Christ rose from the dead and everybody was there but Thomas, but he showed up the next Sunday. So all right, there were three absent last Lord's Day, but we have contacted all of them and they say they're going to be here today.

Let's see. Yep, I see everybody's here, or at least the ones who missed last week are here. It won't hurt anybody to hear it twice, and these three have to hear it the first time, so we're going to read it again. We're going to make sure that this epistle is read to everybody without exception. That's how important the word of God is.

So what are we talking about? Four things that everybody needs, every Christian needs. Number one, the prayers of God's people. Number two, the fellowship of the saints. Number three, the ministry of God's word, the public ministry of God's word, as it is read publicly in the assembly of the saints. And then number four, the grace of God, and this is not an exhortation.

It's the closing benediction, but it's a great reminder too. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen. We all need grace, don't we? We all need unmerited favor. We all need divine bestowment.

We all need divine intervention in our lives. We all recognize that we aren't sufficient for anything of ourselves, and that's why all of Paul's epistles open and close with grace. How do they open this epistle? Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. How does he close this epistle? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen. How does he open the second epistle?

It's right in front of you there. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. How does he close the second epistle? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen. That's what you're gonna find in every one of Paul's epistles. It begins and ends with grace. That's his greatest emphasis.

Why? Because that is more needed than anything else. God's grace is necessary for salvation. Without it, none of us will be saved. God's grace is necessary for Christian living. Without it, every one of us would fail. God's grace is necessary for final salvation. Without that, every one of us would fall away.

Somewhere along the path. God's grace is necessary for every component of our lives that is beneficial. Without God's grace, we have nothing that's good.

With God's grace, we really have nothing that's bad because we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. And so the need for grace has appeared. And the source of grace, we're told, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He secures God's favor by satisfying God's holy justice. He absorbs God's wrath upon himself so that we can receive God's favor. He turns us from enemies of God into friends of God, into enemies who will experience God's holy wrath, deserved and just and necessary, into those who instead receive God's amazing grace, undeserved, unmerited, but oh so blessed. And therefore, the recipients of grace are Christians. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen, amen.

Those of you who believe in Jesus, those who are the people of God. Now obviously, if we are God's people, we have this grace or we wouldn't be saved. But we need to be reminded, don't we?

We forget. We need to be more conscious of God's grace than we sometimes are. We need to delight in it more.

We need to remind ourselves of it often. We need God's grace. We needed God's grace and God gave it. We need God's grace and God is giving it. We will continue to need God's grace and God has promised it. But we need God's grace. And so four things that every Christian needs. What are they again?

I'll have to make sure I don't overlook something here. We need the prayers of God's people, number one. We need the fellowship of the saints, number two. We need the ministry of God's word, number three. And we need the grace of God, number four. May we understand that and may we relish that and receive it by faith, shall we pray. Father, thank you for your word that guides us, that rebukes us, that prods us, that binds us, that sustains us. Help us, O Lord, to honor Christ by receiving your grace and channeling it to others as we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.