The Source of Hope in the Believer
Colossians 1:6-8 · Andrew Molloy · Feb 17, 2019
Colossians (2019), No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261913597525

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So I had a while to prepare, I have a lot longer to prepare for one of these than Roger and Bob and I guess Josiah, right? He'll be hopping, and he has, he's coming in later too. So yeah, so I was, I had the luxury of, I was looking at the history of how this book was written. And I want to point out to you these. Here we are. Well, first I had to figure out that these cities are in present-day Turkey. I was looking in Greece. I was like, where are these? Because they're Greek names, right? Hierapolis, Colossi, Laodicea. There's a river that goes through, kind of between them. Laodicea is on the opposite side of the river of Hierapolis. Colossi is about 10 miles or so from Laodicea.

One guy called this the Tri-City area, which sounds like something in Nebraska on I-70. Tri-City, the weather, and you can imagine the local news doing the weather for the Tri-City area, but very important. There's actually a pointer on that guy. Oh yeah, the red guy? Yeah, okay, cool. And here we are, we're in Turkey.

So it took me two weeks to figure that out, first of all. I highlighted these in the boxes, those are the seven churches of Revelation, right there. So you can see, I'll just point to it. Here's our, you see our Tri-City area there? The three, yeah. So it's right in this area, right in this region. So it's very important for revelation, because Laodicea is right there. Ephesus is not too far from there. And I think Chester Macaulay said that Colossae was kind of on its way up. It was declining economically.

So this is this place. in Turkey. And if you're listening on the internet, the webcast, you can Google this, I guess, because we've got a picture here. Pamukkale, Turkey. So there's these white pools, or blue water, and these white cliff-like things. And that's actually travertine and calcification. So this is a place called Pamukkale, and I'll go to this.

Here's another view, look at that. So, my wife has this picture, and my stepson, and they're like right here. They're in this pool, and it's him and he's a little 8 year old, 10 year old, because they went to Turkey. And I thought, wow, that's a cool place. And only now did I figure out where they were by studying this.

And I'm telling you this because this is Hieropolis. This is now Pamukkale, but now it was Hieropolis. So Klossy is somewhere, I don't know where, but somewhere down in there, maybe on that ridge, or maybe up against that mountain, that white-capped mountain right there. So we've got Klossy down there to the south. We've got Hieropolis.

Here's the hot springs in Hierapolis. So you have those blue pools in the white, in those, and they call those cloud, castle in the cloud or something, those white structures. So they have hot springs in Hierapolis. And you can see the runes of Hierapolis underneath these swimmers here. So here's Colossae. And you say, well, there's nothing there. And there it is.

So my mom was supposed to be here. I was going to quiz her. I was going to give her a test. Because we went to Israel. And I was going to say, mom, what is that little hill there? Because we saw a lot of these in Israel. And I don't know if she would remember.

But it's a tell. It's the Klossy Tell. So it was once under there. And the walls are probably... If they excavated it, I bet they'd find everything. But it's Turkey, and I don't think the Turks are too much into... Yeah, biblical history, right. For obvious reasons. But it's good that it sits there, kind of undisturbed. So that's Colossae. Since it's like that, that ends my lecture because we're done. So I want to go over briefly these these three cities. So we have classy. They had textiles. They did.

Purple dyed wool is what they. were famous for. Really good agriculture in that Lycus River Valley because it's volcanic. So Colossae was famous for its cold springs that came out of there. Heropolis, we talked about that, famous for its hot springs.

And it had a temple. It was a very pagan place, Heropolis. Laodicea was the big hub, the major city, financial banking hub of the Tri-City area. Very wealthy, and it eclipsed the other two. Clossy and Hierapolis had a medical school. Some ear and eye salves were made from its minerals there. And their textile was fine, soft black wool, and they became very wealthy on that.

So the water that came out of these springs, it was either delivered from a Roman aqueduct or by spring. I'm not sure. But it was lukewarm. So I was wondering if you guys know what I'm getting into or what I'm getting at here. I'm getting into that Christ's letter to Laodicea where he says, hey, you're neither hot like Keropolis, you're not cold, like Klossy you're lukewarm and I'm going to spit you out. But Laodicea was Klossy's neighbors.

So the background is Paul was in Rome. He was jailed there in Rome. A man named Epaphras was from Klossy. And he, Macaulay, as I say, he was a circuit rider, so he rode between the three towns and was the pastor. But something was wrong. Gnosticism had made, it was trying to make its way into the little church at Colossae, and these guys, and we'll get to it later in Colossians, but they were beguiling the Colossians, and maybe it wasn't The man or men were not in the church yet, but they were Maybe one of them was going to a Tuesday night Bible study and There was a Gnostic guy who was all up on the Gnostic kind of gospel so they were a little confused about that and So Epaphras was very worried because this was his, I think this was maybe his home church because he was from Klossy.

I don't know if he was from Laodicea or Hierapolis, but he went to help. He went for help. Or somehow he went to Rome to visit Paul. He was going to go to Paul and visit Paul. He went there in about 60, 61. Paul met him in Rome. they talked about Klose so Paul became very concerned because Epaphras was Paul was the man who led Epaphras to Christ so he was very protective of Epaphras and he really loved this guy so he pens a letter to Klose but first he wrote the Ephesians in Rome And he wrote Colossians. And does anyone know what other letter he might have written? Colossians. From jail? Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not. Philemon, right?

So Epaphras is with Paul in Rome. And they take back these three letters. And I'll get to that a little more later. But here's again Turkey and here's where we are. There's our tri-city area. So Paul, this white line, it goes from Ephesus and it's going back to Antioch and things like that. But that's his path of his third missionary journey. So he's He never gets down south to these three cities, but he's close. He's been by there. He's been to Philadelphia, and Ephesus, and Antioch, and all these places over here.

Coney Lister, I think Derby, he was there. So he was in the neighborhood, and he was very concerned about this little area. And we'll talk about Onesimus now, or as they say in Indiana, they say Onesimus, which is how I pronounced it until I moved to Colorado. But Onesimus, he escaped as a slave from Klossy, and he made his way to Rome.

And then he met Paul. He became a believer. And he stayed with Paul many, A long time, I think. Paul really liked this guy. But Paul had to send them back to Colossae, legally and morally. And do you know who Onesimus was going back to? His owner. Philemon. Yeah, right. So Philemon, he escaped from Philemon and he had to go back. So The house church in Colossae was very likely, we can't say this for sure, but a couple, Macaulay and Ryrie said that this house church is likely Philemon's church in Colossae. It's his church. So, Onesimus is the escaped slave from Philemon's church in Colossae. Epaphras is the pastor there, and he's in Rome.

So it's a very natural thing for him to come back with an SMS, to go back to class A. And so that's the background of how we get to where we are today, which is verse 6. So I just wanted to do that little introduction. How are we doing on time? Pretty good. So I'll read from verse 1, go up to verse 5.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel. And that's where we, that's where Bob left us off last week.

The title for today's lesson was, I guess the hope of, yeah, it was the hope of the, where does the hope come from? The source of the Believer's Hope. The source of the Believer's Hope. And I guess Macaulay came up with it? That was Macaulay's. But it's the gospel. So the answer to the question is the gospel is the source of the Believer's Hope in Colossae. So they had a hope. They heard the gospel.

So I want to break verse six down today a lot, because there's a lot in here. So the first part of verse six says, the gospel which has come to you just as in all the world. So this phrase, which has come to you just as in all the world, someone must always bring the gospel.

It travels. and mainly by foot. So Paul at some point met Epaphras in I'd say Ephesus and Epaphras became a believer. The gospel traveled back with Epaphras back to Colossae and he ministered there. He probably started the church in Laodicea, probably started the church in Hierapolis and Colossae.

We says he gets this, the gospel has come alongside you. And I like that it's snuggled up close to you. So it's, it's come alongside you. And it's and I think they embraced it intimately. I think that and it was it is the true gospel. It's not to contrast it with this other gospel that they were hearing from maybe the North, maybe they were getting this from Hierapolis, the Gnostic gospel, the false gospel that they were hearing. That one didn't travel through Paul and it was localized and specialized.

I think of it as Paul's gospel, because he refers to his gospel as his gospel. So Paul's gospel is what we know is 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 1 through 4, just that Christ died for your sins, he was buried, and he rose again. And that is the saving gospel, that this is the one that traveled here to Klose. And then you can add to that, you can add the good news, which we'll get into in the book. that the believers in Colossae are risen with Christ, are buried with Christ, and they have a hope of heaven. And that's more, and it's Paul's gospel, the church, revealing the nature of the church is Paul's gospel too.

So Paul knew Even though he never met the Colossians, he knew exactly what they knew because he got it directly from Christ, Jesus Christ himself. He was in the, you know, three years in the, I guess, I think Arabian Desert with Christ himself. And he got a heck of a lot of information from Jesus Christ himself. Then he gave it to Epaphras. Then Epaphras walked it over here to Colossae. So it travels, and it travels by foot in those days.

And I've got some scripture here, much like it in Isaiah, Isaiah 52.7, how beautiful are upon the mountains are the feet of him who bringeth good tidings. That publishes peace, that bringeth good tidings of good that publishes salvation, that saith unto Zion, God, thy God reigneth. And you can, there's your feet, and there's the bringing of the gospel, because good tidings is the gospel, the good news.

And Romans 10.15 is, Paul is, Paul is just quoting the above scripture. And how shall they preach unless they are sent? And that one who was sent was the Epaphras. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Alright.

Our second little clause in verse six is the gospel, the true gospel bears fruit. So in verse six, the gospel which has come to you, bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing since the day you heard it." So let's look at this phrase, constantly bearing fruit and increasing. I'm not a Greek guy, but these are two participles in Greek. which I find pretty interesting, bearing fruit and increasing fruit. The ING makes it a participle, and I can't remember my English classes, but I'll take their word for it.

So both participles are in the middle voice. So what about the middle voice that makes it this important, bearing fruit and increasing fruit? The bearing and increasing of fruit is done because it's in the middle voice. It connotates, it has intensity and energy. So this gospel comes and it bears fruit and it increases with intensity. We also know the middle voice denotes an intense interest in the result of the action. Someone who is bringing the gospel and concentrating on planting the gospel so that it bears fruit and increases in fruit is intensely interested in the result of those two actions.

And that basically, if I'm correct, Roger, is the definition of the middle voice right there. You're intensely... Also the idea, it has some It benefits the person that's taking it in. Yeah, thank you. I didn't catch that, but that's good. But who's the one who's interested in the results of this action? And I thought a lot about this.

And I don't think it's Epaphras. I don't think it's Paul. I think it's the Holy Spirit. I think he's the one that is in the background bearing the fruit and increasing the fruit and making sure that it's directed and it has energy and intensity. And he's very, very concerned about the outcome of that action.

I'm getting into here, true spiritual fruit bearing is regenerative. just like the production of crops. And this comes from Wiest. He made a big point about this. And you can see from the first point there, that bearing fruit and increasing fruit, that's agriculture. We're into agriculture now. And that's the kind of picture that Paul is drawing here. Wiest says that the gospel is a reproductive organism. just like crop. And it has a mechanism inside it that is regenerative. See this? I forgot about this. See this?

That's a pair of lips about to kiss. I just got that because of the middle voice. Ron Merriman said that the middle voice is If you want to think about the good definition is think about your very first kiss. First time you've kissed a girl or boy, whatever gender you are, and you're very intensely interested in the outcome of that action.

And so that's the best. And then I was thinking, well, which girl? In high school, I had a girlfriend. I was a kid. And then, of course, I remember my first kiss with my wife. And, well, now I'm down this hole. I can't think of a better. But I remember I brought this. I was in high school.

I brought my girlfriend. to church here and we were going into first time she's been to church uh for only time I brought her and you'll know why because uh Richard Locke uh said hey welcome to the family he thought we were married and I was like 16 I'm like I got very nervous so she didn't come back to church Here's a good verse from Matthew, Matthew 13.8, the parable of the sower.

And you can see this exact thing that Christ himself says. When the sower is sowing seeds, some of the soil falls on good soil and yields a crop. Some of it a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. And some of the crop before that falls on the road, gets eaten by crows, and then some of the seeds Christ is talking about goes into shallow soil, comes up quickly, and then gets baked by the sun.

We can see this regenerative and energetic spreading of the gospel when we read Acts. So the gospel is just starting out. And right after Pentecost, 3,000 people are saved. And it's growing like wildfire. And so we see that described in the first part of Acts.

And Paul's missionary journey, here's the three. And these three lines are each of his journeys. And look where he's been. He's been all over. Galatia, he's been Syria, there's Macedonia, there's Asia, which is where we are. We are in Asia Minor with Klossy. And then he goes to Italy and Rome. So look at that.

Here's Paul and he's starting all these churches. So that's kind of the genesis of all this gospel spreading. And Paul knew exactly I think exactly what the Colossians knew, because it's Epaphras, who he trusts a lot, and then he will find, coming up verse 15, he launches into some doctrine, and he just assumes that they know all this stuff, and I think they do.

So the Gospel's fruit bearing in Colossians 1.6, the third part, is is uniform and universal, is what I say. And that phrase is, even as it has been doing in you since the day you heard it. And this even as right there is a very interesting word.

It's kathos in the Greek, or kathos in the Greek. It means just as or in the same proportion as. or to the same degree as. The interesting thing, and this jumped out at me, it didn't jump out to anyone else, so I worry about it, because if it made sense to me and no one else talked about it, maybe it's not important, but it's used two times in verse 6, the word kathos, the Greek word kathos. Let me skip to verse 7. it's also used there. You see it just as you learned it from Epaphras. So Kathos starts out verse 7 too, so three times in like two and a quarter verses it's used.

So I think Paul is trying to make a point, and that is, you Colossians are getting the exact same thing that has spread and we just saw the chart where he's been, you're getting that exact same thing that everyone else has been getting. And it's the true gospel. It's not this, he's differentiating it from the Gnostic gospel that has been kind of making its way through this area.

Is that like reassurance? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think what he's doing is, because he uses that word three times, he's reassuring them of, hey, this is it. And first of all, I'm Paul, and I got this directly from Christ. And he says that in other books. I got this directly from Christ. And he's reassuring them that They're on the right track, and Epaphras has put them on the right foot.

I think that's exactly... Yeah, thanks for doing it, because I didn't put it like that, but that's really good. And then the last part of verse 6 is... He... The gospel has come to you, even as it has been doing since the day you heard it, and understood the grace of God in truth. So... When the gospel comes, it needs to be learned, heard first, and then learned and understood and believed to have a producing fruit, faith, which is obvious.

Now, the word understood is epigenosko, the verb form of epinosis. And epinosis is one of Paul's favorite words, right? You all know that. And it means to become thoroughly acquainted with or to know accurately. And Ron Merriman, I like his, well, I like the thing about the lips, too. But I also like his definition of epinosis. It's a personalized, it's when you take and know something, you personalize it, and it sinks deep into you.

And it's knowledge that's a wow, like a wow knowledge. You can't walk away from it and say, well, so what? So you think about those things in your life that you learn, and you know, and you don't really think about. things in the Bible, with the Gospel, you know, you wake up in the middle of the night and you go, wow, this is really good stuff. So I like that, a wow knowledge.

He also says that any time Epinosus is used, especially by Paul, It only refers, it only has to do with truth. So you can't have epinosis about false things like Gnosticism, even though Gnosticism means knowledge, but like that's an empty knowledge. So epinosis is only related to the truth.

I like how Weiss puts this little phrase, and understood the grace of God in truth, the fourth part of this verse six. He says, and they came to know experientially the grace of God in the sphere of truth. That's a good kind of expanded and explained way to say this part of the verse that we're in. Okay, so verse seven and eight. What's kind of cool is verse 7 and 8, I sort of covered at the beginning because he talks about Epaphras and bringing the gospel. So I'm just going to wrap up. He's my new favorite person. I really like this guy.

And I think that he was in Rome and he brought back He brought, and I'm guessing, because he is in Rome, and Epaphras was there with Paul, he was the one who brought Epaphras back to Colossae. And they also carried these letters. I think they carried the letter to the Colossians, the Ephesians, because they passed through Ephesus, right, on their way there, and they're going to give Philemon's letter to him. So it's really kind of cool that it's three cities and it's all these circumstances revolving around this book and this slave named Anesimus and the pastor Epaphras. Verse 7 says that Epaphras was a bond slave, a fellow doulos, Just like the slave in Luke chapter 7, the Roman centurion slave, there's an interesting, in Exodus chapter 21, it kind of describes the circumstances of being a bond slave.

And it says that a Hebrew slave has to serve for six years, right? they're sort of they have a six-year period and then the seventh year they get to take off and then they're done with their service but if the slave says you know I really love my man I love this guy and I would give my life for him and I want to stay so in Exodus it describes how you take that slave and you take them down to the town square and oh here's a post right here so so you there's this post and you put his head against the post and his earlobe and you take a awl and you you strike this awl through his earlobe a big hole so you gauge it you've seen the the hipster kids with a big gauge in there so this is cool because just a couple weeks ago I was in in church in Telluride at the Alpine Chapel, and the pastor there described the very verse.

And he really did a good job, so I'm just stealing everything from what he said. But I like that. So he's serving now, he's made a lifelong commitment in love to serve this guy and this family. And it's voluntary. And you know it's It's strange to say that we're talking about slavery, but we're also talking about how it's in the sphere of love. And you know that the Romans in Turin loved his slave because he, you know, think of what he did for his slave.

So this is what Paul is saying about Epaphras. So you know that Paul really, really thinks highly of of Epaphras, and he calls him a fellow bond slave. Epaphras is also a servant of Christ, it says in the verse, which we get our word deacon, right? So a guy who does things like in this church, anything that a deacon does. So not quite a slave, but a servant, kind of administration and things that the church needs. Epaphras was a faithful diokanas of Christ.

And I say again here, we made this point before, but I think Paul had a high, high level of confidence in Epaphras. And I think that Paul really I think he just had a heart for these three cities. Probably like he did everywhere else, but it kind of comes out in scripture. Because Paul isn't afraid to call people out, is he? And he will call people out by name who aren't up to snuff. So I think that's what's kind of neat about this first part of Colossians.

And just wrapping up, the note in verse 8, it says, Epaphras informed us of your love in the Spirit. And I think it was again, it was Ironside who has this point about why the Spirit is mentioned there. The Holy Spirit is mentioned, and you just finish this up in Ephesians, 11 times in the book of Ephesians. He's only mentioned here in verse 8 once in the whole book of Colossians.

And so, Ironside, and I think it was Wiest, was saying, well, why is that? That's kind of strange. they say that the Holy Spirit is choosing in this letter to remain invisible and in the background. He doesn't want any spotlight on himself. And if you think about why that was, you have the Colossians who are getting pulled away by the Gnostic gospel, which is... Gnosticism is all these levels of spirits that emanate from God, and so There's a lot of spirits, and I think what they're saying is the Holy Spirit is trying to make it so they're not confused with the triune-ness of God, or the Trinity of God, because that would probably further confuse them. He wanted to put full strength and all the emphasis on the person of Christ. and the headship over the body of believers. Starting in chapter 15, Paul really gets into who and what Christ is. I would agree with Ironside and Wiest and say that the Holy Spirit is taking a back seat for a purpose in this letter. just so that only Christ and his person is the only thing that they're thinking about and their mind is on. Because, unfortunately, right around this time, this was written in 60 or 61 or 62, historically there's a massive earthquake that hits the region. And Klossy could be destroyed at this point.

And maybe even while Epaphras is in Rome, this earthquake could hit. And they don't know when it hits, but it hits, and the earthquakes there are really destructive. There was an earthquake in this area in 1990, and I guess thousands and thousands of people died. So you can tell way back when 2,000 years ago, it would have the same effect, the same devastation on the area.

So this could be it for Colossae. Maybe they didn't even get this letter. Yeah, you know what I mean? So it could be that. But think about it. If they're getting pulled away by the Gnostic gospel, and they're getting off track, And Paul likes to keep all of his churches on track. So they read this letter, and it puts their focus back on Christ and who He is and His person. And you just went through Ephesians, those high heavenly thoughts. So now their mind is on Christ. and then maybe the earthquake comes. So think of where their mind is at, maybe right before they, or a lot of them, die.

Who knows? I don't know when this earthquake hits, but maybe that's why Klose is just a tell. And we do know that Klose became, it sort of disappeared, and Laodicea got richer and richer, and that is the reason that Christ calls them out in that letter, and that's 40 years from now. So, it's just something to think about when we go through this book, this history and the background of it.

It's pretty fascinating. So, questions? I think I'm about to... hear a bell or two. Oh, last week you talked about heaven and what does heaven look like and things like that, right? I heard it and well, here it is. That's heaven. That's heaven to me. That's today. And then we got early. I was like, OK, we'll get back to the dogs. Why? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's well, that's an interesting thing. You think dogs will be in heaven? Maybe. But which dog?

Well, You know, in scripture it says, if you're married twice, which is your wife? Or who is your husband, right? To a woman. If you get remarried, your husband dies. So which dog is going to be your... Yeah, because if they're all there, that's it. Yeah, so, who knows? So, questions, thoughts? Can you talk a little bit more about Gnosticism? Yeah, and I think, and especially when I come back, I'll go into that more because I think it's really, it's an important thing to have a background on. So what it is, is I can tell you what Google says. I think a simple Gnosticism is the Jehovah's Witnesses.

So they think that God is God, and he wasn't created, but that God created Jesus Christ. So, because he was begotten, and they think that Jesus Christ is basically an archangel, equal to Michael, there's Christ, Michael, and who's the other? Gabriel, right.

So it's God, and then this line of great spirits out from God, then down there's another sphere of spirits who are not as great as Christ, and then down from that, and then what you have is at the top, God is spirit, which is obvious, we believe that, but as you go down through the emanations from God, you get more you get a mixture of spirit and body. And then finally you get to mankind and it's all their physical beings. And that matter, all matter and body, it's all evil. And that's the problem they have with Christ. fully God and fully man, if you really read the scriptures, it blows them all apart. Yeah, and I think, especially when you get into who Christ is in verse 15, he's really going to the heart of contrasting his gospel to this Gnostic gospel. And you'd think, well, Gnosticism, that's an ancient thing. But it's all over today.

The modern day narcissism originated here in this country. Madame Blavatsky, have you heard of her? Helena Blavatsky. Basically she started Satanism and she's the She's not the father, but she's the matriarch of the satanic church. So that whole thing is emanations from God that you can go to.

And so they would think that Christ is a mid-level spirit. There's higher spirits than Christ. And then someone is coming again that's going to be the spirit that is the the greatest spirit. And what it is, is basically Satan saying, I'm going to come and I'm going to be worshipped.

So it's the satanic gospel. But this is the start of it. Not the donuts, but... Yes, exactly what he's doing. People are concerned with, well, Satan is... Boy, Satan has been really bad to me today, and Satan is on my... I just heard from a lady in Telluride, Satan has no clue of who you are. He's working on this... He's got this very invisible, huge operation going.

And he's not all-knowing, so he has to concentrate on this. If he's at your house, he can't be at mine. Right. He's always at Courtney's house. He's always having sandwiches. I was told that if you're a teacher here, you have to be good at the digs to Courtney, because I know that Mike is an expert at that. So yeah, any guys who I want to create a fall guy, you just use Courtney. And his wife is like, oh, I wish that Satan would go away. Give me a break.

But yeah, so that's what we're dealing with in Colossians. And he's going to deal with all the points of Gnosticism. What's amazing is he's going to present a picture of Christ which we get no place else in the scripture. Just his attributes and who he is. He's God in the flesh. He's going to describe that he can be bodily, in bodily form.

So he's going to put to bed all those issues about the flesh is evil, he's going to debunk all that stuff. And what is also kind of neat about Colossians is Ephesians is very ethereal and heavenly, but in Colossians Paul, he deals with that stuff, but he brings it down to, he makes sure to talk to Colossians about their walk, their day-to-day walk and how to deal with how husbands should deal with wives, how slaves should deal with their masters, just because they're not, he needs to make sure that they're solid. They're not as solid as the Ephesians is. So he needs to kind of make it earthly for the Colossians. So, yeah. Okay. Should we close? Okay.

Dear Nepali, we thank you for this time here and we thank you that we can gather in freedom in this country to worship you and to increase our knowledge and our appreciation for who you are and your word and be with us this day that that we are delivered home safely and we pray for this coming week and pray that you'll be on our hearts and in our minds all week and these things we pray in Jesus name, Amen.