The Holy Kiss
by Jeremy Painter
January 25, 2023 · The Sanctuary, Silvis (Quad Cities), Illinois
Kind: Bible study
Scripture: Romans 16:1-16

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/jeremy-painter--the-holy-kiss
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Romans 16 and 1, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Sankria, that you may welcome her and the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and help her in whatever she may need from you. For she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. Greed, Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greed also the church in their house. Greed my beloved Eponetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Greed Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greed Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the Apostles and they were in Christ before me. Greed Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greed Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ and my beloved Stacus. Greed Appellis, who is approved in Christ.

Greed those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greed my kinsmen Herodion. Greed those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greed those workers in the Lord, Trafena and Trafosa. Greed the beloved Pursus, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greed Rufus, chosen in the Lord. Also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Greed Asyncritus, Flagon, Hermes, Patrabus, Hermus and the brothers who were with them. Greed Philologus, Julia, Narius and his sister and Olympus and all the saints who were with them. Greed one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. As I was reading this passage of scripture, I had to try and contain myself for all the electricity that was going through the room. There were shouts of joy, elation, but seriously, this looks like an unpromising place from which to teach or preach. But there's a lot in here. I want to leave with the message today, tonight, on

the holy kiss. The holy kiss of which the Apostle Paul speaks. And I think you'll find there's a lot more in here than meets the eye. Specifically, I'm teaching on the preciousness of the church. Would you pray with me? Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for your holy word and your holy Apostles. I pray you would help me to teach and to preach. I pray that what is said here would be faithful and true. People would be built up, encouraged. You'd be glorified tonight. Amen. Amen. Thank you for standing. You'd be seated and intended to the goal that the outset was to end on this last night with a lesson on the Apostles Peter and John. A little earlier in the week, I started quite a bit about this passage of scripture. It's nearest to my heart right now. And I feel like this is a fitting place to complete this series of Bible studies. I could give you the setting

for this final salutation. The Apostle Paul is writing to a church to which he's never been. He's not a complete stranger there, as you can see. He is known by some personally. And these people from Paul's past are a part of the church in Rome, but the church is much, much larger. These are some of his fellow countrymen, people who have traveled with him in the past and for one reason or another have ended up in Rome. But for the most part, he's a stranger to this congregation. He has been called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, and he considers it his life mission to take the gospel personally to what are believed to be the ends of the world. His time is winding down, and he has not yet been to Rome, which is the hub of the ancient world at this time. The major hubs, the major cities, metropolises, and a church has already been established by someone in Rome.

Probably not Peter, and certainly not Paul. The Apostle Paul has this, almost like the salmon, has this instinct deep built within its nature to return to the stream from which it was spawned. It's a long and arduous journey, and we don't know how they make it back there, but they do. And Paul has something similar, though he's not from Rome. His true calling he feels is to the ends of the world, and he must go there before he dies. Plant the gospel. It's his life mission. Now, the ends of the world for him is what we would today call Spain. It was called the Iberian Peninsula in Paul's day. He wanted to take the gospel to Iberia, and there he planned on probably establishing a work, and then going on to be with the Lord. The trouble is, is he's short on funds to be able to do this. He needs to establish a work, and typically he wants to take a few

people with him to help establish that work. And he's constantly in want. He lives in impoverished conditions most of the time, and it's very expensive to get to Iberia. And so he writes this letter to a church he's never been. Most of the church do not know him. And this is a letter you might almost call it an application. It's a resume. It establishes who he is, why he's doing what he's doing, and what he's been called to do. And he very methodically and very systematically wants to explain to this Roman church, which is primarily, it primarily consists of Jewish people. And for many of the Jewish people, the early Jewish Christians, there was a question as to whether or not the Gentiles were, were even to be a part of this covenant. And so he writes the letter to this Jewish congregation so that they will see that it was all along God's desire for the Jewish people to be a blessing

to the Gentiles, and for the Gentiles to be part of the covenant. And so he writes again from the very, very beginning builds upon a strong foundation starting with Abraham, that the Gentiles were always part of this covenant. It's a letter, you might almost call it a partner in mission. Today we call them PIMs in the United Pentecostal Church. Will you please help me to be a missionary to Spain? So he writes the letter, he folds it up, and he hands it to one of his most trusted allies. He hands it to Phoebe. Phoebe seems to be a woman who hosts a church gathering in her home near Corinth, which is where Sincreia is. It's a port city. She seems to have had the wherewithal and the ability to host this church in this particular place. And Phoebe also has the ability to take a long trip from Corinth to Rome. And she would have to hire a ship and pay an extraordinary

amount of money to take that ship and then deliver this letter, this very precious letter to the Roman congregation. This is a woman doing this. The letter to the Romans may very well be the most significant document ever written in human history. And whether you appreciate the letter or not, it has still had more to do with fundamental changes and revolutions and revivals than any other document that has ever been written by human hands. The book of Romans almost single-handedly started the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, the 16th century. The book of Romans was the book, there was a verse in the book of Romans that was responsible for the conversion of a pagan by the name of Augustine of Hippo. And Augustine became one of the greatest theologians of the church has ever had. The book of Romans, the book of Romans, the book of Romans, wherever there's going to be a revival, wherever there's going to be a Reformation, wherever there's

going to be a wave, a new movement, it's usually going to begin with the book of Romans. The book of Romans explains how the two covenants work together harmoniously, how the two testaments, old and new, work together harmoniously. The book of Romans explains and justifies why we're here today as Gentiles. And he entrusted this to a certain Phoebe. And Phoebe boards a ship and she was protected by the Holy Spirit. And she took it to Rome. And the rest, as they say, is history. She is still there in Rome. And Paul has said, please welcome her in a way that's worthy of the saints and help her in whatever she may need from you. In other words, Phoebe's going to be the one that goes all the way to Spain. And she's going to start establishing a place for us to begin a work there. So help her in whatever she needs of you. She has always been there for me. Please be

there for her. Then he goes on to Prisca and Aquila, husband and the wife, Prisca, sometimes called Priscilla and Aquila. These were, this was a husband and wife that he met in Corinth some years ago. And Priscilla and Aquila were Jewish, although they have Roman names. They were Jewish. And they lived in Rome, but they were expelled from Rome because all of the Jews were kicked out of Rome, expelled from the city by the Emperor Claudius in the year AD 46. And so they were sent in exile and they went to, they went to the port town of Corinth and they were tent makers. And so they would, in Corinth, every four years there was a, what was essentially the Olympic games. Only these were called the, the Pasidian games, the games in honor of Poseidon. And so they alternated with the Olympian games. There was the Olympian games every two, every four years. And then in between that, there was the Pasidian

games. And Corinth was the hub for that particular athletic event. And so it was a great place for tent makers to go and set up shop in the Agora in the marketplace and, and sell their tents for people who needed a place to stay. It didn't have hotels back then so much, didn't have Airbnb. You pretty much needed to carry your, your shelter on your back. And it just so happened that at that time Paul was there. He must have been setting up two in the marketplace, probably nearby to sell tents. And so you have these two rival competitive tent makers and they meet one another and they begin to share the, Paul begins to share the gospel and Priscilla and Aquila become mighty, mighty converts to the Christian faith. So mighty that they end up even reaching out to a certain Apollos. And Apollos became an important figure in Christian history. Please, Paul says the, the Jewish people had been welcomed back

in Rome after the Emperor Claudius died. And so obviously they had went back home and Paul misses them and he says, greet them. They're my fellow workers in Christ and they have risked their necks for my life. Oh, I would love to know what all is contained, all of the memories that are contained in those words. They risked their leg, their necks for my life. I give thanks, he says to them. And so do all the churches of the Gentiles. Give thanks to them as well. Greet also the church in their house and greet my beloved Eponetus. And I want you to hear this. There, there's always almost always a little biographical note about these names. This one Eponetus, he was the first convert to Christianity in Asia. In what he means by Asia is Achaia, which is where the Peloponnes is today in Southern Greece. The first convert in Asia. Now Paul spent quite a bit of time in this region. And

we know from the book of Acts that he didn't have a whole lot of success there. A couple of his later converts in Athens were named, oh boy, Dionysus and Demeter. Dionysus. He just got two, two converts. He preached a sermon on the Areopagus. Everyone laughed at him, except for two people. It was a hard place for him to minister. Didn't feel like he was having much success there. But before that even, he came upon, he met a certain Eponetus and he was the first convert. Now, when I read through this letter, I read also, I feel like there's a little bit of my life involved in this somehow. When my father and I planted a church in 1998, about 17 miles away from Seattle, we started out with six people, six people and it was all my family, just my family. And dad sold his business. He sold everything so that he could build a church, build a church building. Dad, shouldn't

we work our way up a little bit? Why don't we have a church in our home for a little while and then maybe we'll go to an office building somewhere, a storefront, maybe rent out a high school stage or something like that. No, dad's not gonna do that. Dad's gonna build a whole church. It's gonna seat 250 people. We've got six of us. And so while it's getting ready, we rent out a little hall. And we're there for six months. And not a single time, not a single time when anybody new came in, no visitor ever came for more than one service. And we were starting to wonder, have we made an enormous mistake? And then we moved into the building. Now, when we were just six of us sitting in that little hall, we could make some noise. We could make it feel pretty happy and bubbly. But when you've got six people sitting in a cavernous 250 person sanctuary. And then

dad says, when he's up there getting ready to preach on Sunday morning, the children are dismissed for Sunday school. Now there are three of us. We're looking around at each other and dad gets up there and he takes the microphone. Don't need a microphone with six people and now three. But he's gonna preach in the microphone anyway. And he puts out, he takes out his Bible. He's got 15 pages of notes for every sermon. And he starts going through it. Now, dad is a lot different from me. Dad is wilder than a March hair. He is crazy. He is wild. He's all over the place. He is energetic and demonstrative. He can't stand still when he's preaching. It was a very windy day, the day that this apple fell from that tree. I couldn't be more different. He starts preaching at the two of us and he's preaching like he's at general conference or because of the times. And I'm like, dad, it's

just us. That just makes them get crazier. And we were doing Sunday morning and Sunday night service and all six of us were there. And dad would get up and preach again. Well, a couple of months in and we have this baptismal tank which dad heats up and cleans up before every Sunday service. It hasn't been the waters have not been stirred yet, but he's gonna keep on keeping on in hope. He gets up there to start the service and lo and behold, a visitor walks in. In fact, two of them, we almost felt like we were growing by a third right there. 30% growth. I mean, how many of you have heard church is growing 30% in one service? Pretty impressive. Well, they walked in and I thought, well, we've had it. We've had some visitors before, but when dad takes that microphone and he goes through his 15 pages of notes, what are they gonna think? Again, dad, dad's pretty wild.

And I thought as I was leading song service, I put the microphone down, dad's gonna come up. I said a little prayer to myself and God, please let him be calm. Please let him let him be calm tonight. These two visitors that walked in were in their later fifties, very, very well put together suit husband and wife of suit and tie. She was wearing dress and they look like the sort of people who wouldn't take very well to an old time Pentecostal preacher. And dad, dad saw that there were visitors and he threw out his notes because now he's going to preach Acts 238. Make them feel anonymous in there. So he starts preaching and he tries to keep it under control, but his nature. And pretty soon he's all over the place. He's spitting. He's snorting and he's stomping. And I can hardly even understand what he's saying, but I do know he's saying this. Repent and be baptized. Every one of

you in the name of Jesus Christ. He keeps on saying that and saying that and saying that. He keeps on saying things like there is only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. And he asks us all to stand because we're going to alter call. But before he calls everybody forward, he says, anybody in here want to be baptized in Jesus name? Well, there's the six of us baptized in Jesus name. So anybody, anybody, I don't know who might be at anybody. And the gentleman stood up, went out into the middle where the aisle is. And he stepped down to the front and said, Pastor, my wife and I would like to be baptized right now. I didn't know where I was. I was absolutely amazed. And Larry Spray was his name. And Sandy Spray and dad said, the baptismal tank's ready for you. And we've got a robe in the back.

And so Larry Spray said, I don't have a robe. Baptize me the way I am. And he himself climbed into the baptismal tank. And he said, baptize me. And dad hadn't had a lot of practice baptizing people, didn't quite know where to stand. He knew what to say. But it all caught him off guard. He said, put your right hand over your nose and hold your nose. Put your left hand over your right wrist. And I'm going to put my hand over your wrists. And I'm going to I'm going to take you down in the name of Jesus into the water. And I'm going to call out on the name of the Lord. And so Larry Spray did just as dad asked. And dad said, Larry Spray upon the confession of your faith. I now baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. He came up out of the water speaking in tongues. And then she got

baptized. And they both got out of the tank. One by one. And they danced on the platform. And this very evening, right about now, 25 years later, Larry and Sandy Spray, now in their early 80s, are right now pulling into the parking lot of that church. And they are opening the doors to Abundant Hope Fellowship. And they're going to sit down in that same place they sat down in 25 years ago. And for the last 25 years, they have taught Bible studies. They have helped raise us. They have funded the church. They have helped build a powerful church in Bermerton, Washington, thriving. Generations have come and gone. Many ministries have been born out of that church. And so when I read, Paul say, greet my beloved Eponetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. I see Larry Spray coming up out of the water. And finally, I know we were supposed to be here. We were called. And God was blessing

this. Greet him. Greet him. Don't you forget. Though I'm far away. Greet him. And tonight. I greet Larry and Sandy Spray. The church. The church. I remember, and Paul mentioned, that there was a woman who was like a mother to him. Greet her. Her name was Mary. I remember, besides my own mother, a woman who was like a mother to me when I was a child in the church. Her name was Trexel English. She's beautiful African American lady about six foot two was very proper and dignified. Her last name was English. And she corrected everyone's grammar. But she would sing in the choir. And she was always the one who sang the solo. She take the microphone. And the church could be just about any condition. She take the microphone. And there was a song that we used to sing. I've got a feeling. Everything's gonna be all right. I've got a feeling. She take off her high heels. And that dignified beautiful

woman. She'd start dancing before the Lord and singing. In any condition we were in no matter how sad we were. When we heard her say, I've been tempted. I've been tried. Many times in my life. But Jesus told me everything was gonna be all right. We believed her. And pretty soon we were all doing what she was doing. One time mom and dad went out of town. And there was only one woman that mom and dad trusted us kids with. And that was Trexel English, her house. And she poured us a bowl of cereal. My sister and me, she asked us what kind of cereal we liked. We both said honeycombs. As part of the honeycombs. The honeycombs out and then the milk and now comes the best part. My sleeves. I take that bowl and I lift it up and I'm gonna drink the milk and all of a sudden I hear a hand slam down on the supper table. The forks

and the knives jump off the table. And she says, Jeremy Lee painter. I didn't know she knew my name. You are not an animal. You are a child descended from Adam. We eat with spoons and forks and knives. Put that bowl down right now. And so one spoon at a time. She's the kind of lady who would eat her M&Ms with a knife and fork. And the whole week was like that. I felt like I was practically a barbarian. But I had been civilized by this wonderful woman. I think she might have had more influence on me than I could have ever known at the time. She taught me manners and respect. Dignity and elegance. My father gave me his DNA which included an inability to tell a plan joke. My mother she gave me her eyes. Grandfather gave me his voice. But the church gave me my dignity and my personality. The church loved me and cared for me. They took my

they took they took my grandmother and great grandmother in when they were nobodies. And they treated them like royalty. I'm thinking right now that I want to greet Drexel English. I salute you and I'm grateful for you. You were a gift that the church gave to me. And I can't imagine what my life would be without the church. You know I've heard from time to time every now and then I'll hear somebody say something along the lines of you know so and so that preacher that minister that sort of Pentecostal celebrity you know you know what he gave up to be in the ministry you know he was destined to be a quarterback in the NFL. But he gave it all up. He said no to the scouts and he took up a role in the church. You know this guy he was destined to be an astronaut but he he he turned that down because he felt a calling into the ministry.

I hear I hear these kinds of things from time to time. I hear I hear almost a note in there somewhere. It feels like you're saying to me that you gave up something high in order to become something low. And I think you got it all wrong. I think you got it upside down. I think I think you gave up a bowl of soup for the kingdom of heaven. There was a fellow in our church by the name of Willie brother Willie. We weren't allowed to call the folks the adults by their first names. We needed to be respectful. So we called him brother Willie. Brother Willie in the 1960s he blew his mind on on LSD. He didn't have much left and when no one else would take him in the church took him in and the church called him brother. You didn't have to be good looking to be part of the church. You didn't have to be successful. You didn't

have to give big offerings. You didn't have to be beautiful. You didn't have to be talented to be important. And Willie came in. He struggled with alcohol. He didn't really know how to take care of himself very well but when I was seven years old I remember after service one time and after ultra call I went outside because it was snowing outside which was a rare thing in Bremerton Washington and I went out there and watched as I listened to the sound of the organ inside. The organist was playing oh come all you faithful joyful and triumphant. It's watching the snow. And out of the building came brother Willie and he sat down next to me on the stairs leading up to the church and he said Jeremy what do you want for Christmas? Now we had never had a conversation before and really children didn't have a lot of interaction with adults. We typically stayed with our own and talked with our

own and the adults had important things to do and this is exceedingly rare for an adult to come and talk but he came and talked to me and we talked about Tonka trucks and hot wheels and the snow and then we both sang as we listened to the organ inside. Oh come let us adore you. I'll never forget that conversation because it was like what Jesus taught when the adults were shooing the children away but he held on to one of them and put him on his lap and said suffer the children to come unto me. Forbid them not. You might not think that children are real aware of what's going on around you but I'm telling you they are. The things you do and say are very important and you might not feel like you're a very important person but to a child you sure are. It doesn't have to be your own family member but somebody in the church they're awfully

glad you're there. And those children like looking back and seeing you in your familiar place. It gives them security while all the world's changing around them every single day there's one thing that stays the same Sunday and Sunday out. It's the church. 2001 January 2nd. There's a knock on my door. I was in my 20s and oh Bob Gallagher from the church was there as I opened the door and he said Willie's gone and so for the last 22 years he's been with the Lord. With a Willie I'm still talking about Tonka trucks and hot wheels and I'll never forget that song we sang and I salute you. I had some crazy folks in church. There was old Lois she told me after that Mother's Day Service I was telling you about she came up and she said I don't think you were called to preach or teach or have a microphone at all and she's gone on to be with the Lord

and I preached her funeral and then I think she changed her mind. There was Brother Bruce. Bruce he was he had all the zealotry and passion of the new convert. One service he hears the preacher preach against idolatry. You shouldn't have idols in your life he said for the commandment is thou shalt have no graven images. The preacher explained what all that meant in Moses's day and what it might mean today and Brother Bruce got an idea in his head and right after service he went to the store and he bought rope he had a few firecrackers he bought a can of gas a few other explosives and several cans of spray black paint and he went out to his car and he spray painted it black black and then he drove it down to the cemetery in the middle of the night and he remembered that there is a great big statue of Jesus out in front of the cemetery and so

he positioned explosives all throughout the statue of Jesus soaked everything in gas and started the fire before he was done and so he caught himself on fire and exploded the statue. Poor Jesus is now just nothing about nothing for him except from the waist down and Brother Bruce hears sirens in the background and he takes off running he had parked about half a mile away in the dark and that's why he had spray painted his his car black so that nobody would be able to see him and he ran and he heard sirens coming after him and so he ran and ran and ran he ran about a mile and a half couldn't figure out where in the world his car was you understand why hey i didn't say we're all normal we're all here because we ain't all there and i had some great preaching and teaching growing up i remember one guy was preaching our chapel services i don't even remember

his name i know he had red hair and and he preached as if he were on fire and and his subject was hellfire and his passage of scripture that he kept on repeating was pluck out your eye for it is better to enter into life maimed than to enter into hell hole where the worm die if not and the fire is not clen quenched where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and we're all like eight years old and we we don't we don't we don't know the difference between you know imagery and symbolism and reality so it's getting hot in here this is pretty rough and he keeps on going where the worm die if not the fire is not quenched and there shall be weeping and he's wanting the kids to say weeping and finally one or two says weeping and gnashing of teeth gnashing of teeth he keeps on repeating it's over and over and over again finally one

of the smart aleck kids says my grandma doesn't have any teeth now this would usually stagger a preacher he wouldn't quite know what to say to an eight year old who's challenged his eschatology so well how in the world is she gonna mash her teeth but he was quick on his feet and he said teeth will be provided brother bruce i salute you brother redheaded hellfire preacher i hope you're still preaching i salute you i just have one or two more memories 1990 my mother was giving birth to my youngest brother i was so excited this is gonna be my second brother i was so excited who it had uh the younger two my younger two siblings long after my sister and i were born so we're quite a bit older these were unplanned pregnancies and this one was drastic and she wasn't doing well set for an early delivery and and mom gave birth to terry but dad took us home two

older ones home we're all excited and and happy and dad took us to dairy queen on the way home celebration he thought i was gonna say burger king didn't you next day though dad came in to wake us up and he said jeremy jamie mom's not doing well she's lost a lot of blood overnight and we're not sure she's gonna make it and there was a Wednesday night service that night and i went to church dad dropped us off and he said tell everybody to pray and so just sat there couldn't wait for the preaching to end so we could come up to the altar and pray and when the preacher was done we came jamie and i and we knelt down next to one another and we began to sob somebody must have gotten the report out a little bit because one of the gentlemen in the church a former navy seal by the name of mobeck great big john bunion of

a came beside us and i remember he put his arm around me and he had this great big voice like ten claps of thunder and he said the lord is my rock and my shield and my fortress and when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than i god heal their mother he called out like this for not less than a half hour at the top of his voice here was someone not a relative not a family member praying my prayers for me taking the terror i felt and equalling it with the sheer ferocity of his plea as he prayed he tamed death death itself perfect love casting out fear thunder i've heard that thunder has caused many to turn to the lord thunder is what god sends to the earth to remind man of his place in the universe thunder makes us afraid i think the prayers of mobeck was kind of like reversed thunder a storm

in the shape of a man in prayer formed over the battlements of heaven blackening the skies of heaven and sending the clap and crack and bellow to its quiet in golden streets the fervent prayers of a righteous man availing much and i sang all my life leaning leaning safe and secure from all alarm we were talking about the everlasting arms i've never felt the arms of god but i felt the arm of mobeck his servant and i hardly need to know what the arms of god are like now because i already know a man of prayer i honestly don't know what so many people are going to do and what they do without a church without strong shoulders to cry on without people to worship with weekend and week out i don't know what you're going to do when you lay down to die in that hospital bed and no one's there to read to you the lord is my shepherd i shall

not walk i'm so thankful it was a gift i didn't even ask for the church is the body of christ and we in our master's way jesus himself was rejected the stone that the builders rejected and so oftentimes the church is made up out of the people who have been rejected in here you don't have to be beautiful to be loved have to be talented we place standards upon people that anybody can meet it hasn't always been perfect in fact i've seen my fair share of darkness but outweighing you know about everything from the church i didn't become a convert to this because of an awesome building i didn't convert because there were celebrities at our church i didn't convert because of the band's music i didn't convert because the church had a contemporary instead of a traditional service i didn't convert because there were a lot of people there there weren't i didn't convert because my pastor seemed rich or famous god's

great church i'm thankful for the people who have been coming to church with you for so long love them and cherish them on this day next year how many will not be where they are today i think they were telling me to stop when you're old and gray and nodding by the fire take down this book and read and dream dream of the look your eyes had once another shadows deep how many loved you for your moments of glad grace how many loved you with a love false or true but one man loved the pilgrim soul in you from beside the glowing bars whisper a little sadly how love and time fled and paced upon the mountains overhead and hid their face amid a crowd of stars very near an old man if you're a young man young woman you can have a life in here wherever i can make sure the church doors are open but there's a with all my heart

i thank you for this great gift we sit in heavenly places who have blessed us have gone on to be with you lord and tonight we greet them and give them the holy kiss thank you for many friends and family thank you for the faithful ones thank you for the ones who've listened to me heard my cry supported me stuck out their neck for me if i had been planning my own life i couldn't have planned one better be put in the middle of the church thank you bless this congregation elder for the young for many generations to come for the sacrifices that have brought us here may i one of these servants for everyone else could you come and pray come together as a church if you would go through those who've been a blessing to you would you go through them take inventory and give god thanks