Three things. First of all, we see in verses 1 to 16 that a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ

has to have a loving heart. And then in verses 17 to 20, he says that disciple has to have a protective

heart. And thirdly, in verses 21 to 27, he says, the disciple of Jesus Christ

has to have a grateful heart, a thankful heart. Let's look at these very quickly. Having a loving

heart. Now, this long list of names that Paul mentions here, particularly the first 16

verses, and then he mentioned more later, this is a clear indication that Paul cared deeply

about each individual person, not just as a group. No doubt, Paul prayed for these believers by name in the cities

that he has been to. And this one, actually, he hasn't been to yet. Paul did not fall in the

trap or said, God bless everyone everywhere. You know what I'm talking about? The kind of prayer.

God bless everyone everywhere. Or God bless those

people in Ephesus. Or God bless those people in Corinth. Or God bless those people in the Church of Rome.

No. He focuses on individuals within the churches, even the ones he hasn't been to yet, like Rome.

Now here in this chapter, he names 33 names and two households.

24 of these are in Rome.

The church has in visited.

In the last message, we saw it clearly, while he is so grateful to the Lord for using him,

and yet he gave all of the glory to whom?

Christ. He gave all of the credit to Christ. Sure, God

helped him accomplish so many things, and yet he comes here to chapter 16, almost without

even taking a breath from chapter 15, and then he says, guess what? While all of the credit goes to the Lord,

while all of the glory goes to the Lord, while God did it all. And yet, and yet, I could not have done it

without all these people, all the partners in the ministry, these wonderful fellow believers. And he was,

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