Elders: Burly Church Fathers

[0:00] our kids to children's ministry. First Timothy chapter 3. We're going to be reading from verses 1 through 7. This saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

[1:14] The title for today's sermon is Burley Church Fathers. First and foremost, because puns are awesome, and secondly, because the world needs men who, if not physically burly, because, you know, y'all can't be awesome, are at least spiritually burly. Burly means stocky, large, sturdy, slow, and steady, and we need burly church fathers. Have you ever heard of a whippet? You know what a whippet is?

[1:49] Speaking of old words, a whippet is this little yappy slender dog that dashes left and right and just dashes all super fast, but it has the disadvantage of needing a sweater as soon as the temperature drops below like 50. You know, it's this shaking, shivering, little yappy thing, right? You know, we don't need, the church does not need the spiritual equivalent of whippets. The church needs the spiritual equivalent of St. Bernard's, and that's really what is presented to us in this passage. Burley Church Fathers.

[2:28] There's really nothing special about the man presented in this passage except his soundness. Is that, that should register. There's nothing special about the man presented in this passage except his soundness. He is steady, reliable, sound. Now, we don't have time to thoroughly exposit this whole passage, and we have a text calendar where we, we know what we're going to come to the next week and so on and so forth, and so we have to go to chapter, or verse 8 next week. So we're not going to be able to cover every single one of these qualifications. The thing with this passage I soon observed as I began to study for it is like, this is either going to be a 30-minute sermon or a 90-minute sermon, and y'all are like, 30, please say 30. It's like, that's, that's what we're aiming for.

[3:23] We can't possibly go through each one of these qualifications in a way that they deserve in a single sermon. This is really more of a sermon series than a sermon, single sermon. But what we can do this morning is do a decent job of covering the first verse. Now, before we go into that, let me encourage you with a couple of things. First of all, ladies, here is your prayer list for your husband.

[3:49] Single ladies, here is your list for what you're looking for. It is very easy when you're married to someone to begin to overemphasize certain areas of change that you would like to see that are not necessarily wrong, but they just don't hit God's top 10 list. And so here you are praying for number 734, and the Bible gives you a top 10 list. Here's your top 10 list. It's more than 10, by the way. So here's what I want to let you know, ladies. This is your prayer list for your husband. If you're single and looking for a man, this is what you should be looking for. God has just given you a wonderful list of qualities for essential manhood. And that's pretty cool. Secondly, to all of you, this is your prayer list for your pastor. One of the things I've observed over 20 plus years of being a pastor is, is like it's one thing to get qualified. It's another thing to stay qualified. You want to understand my life, you can simply think of the devil surrounding every single one of these areas, firing arrows all the time. And so let me ask you this, and I mean very sincere, and I hope you'll, I hope you'll do this.

[5:09] Would you at least once a month grab this, sit down with your Bible, grab this little section, and just pray for me and ask God. And you know, and the thing is, we're getting to know each other. I've, you know, it's been six years. You know, you know some of these things, like, well, Chris was going to struggle with this one. I need to pray extra hard for this one, and so on and so forth. Would you please be diligent when, as God provides you with a pastor, to go through this list and ask God to care for you, care for him in these particular ways? So those are two kind of broad things. Now, let me ask you a quick trick question. What is the first qualification on this list? What is the first qualification in this list? And that's a trick question, because the answer is ambition. The first qualification on this list is a desire to serve as an overseer. And by the way, overseer, pastor, elder, these are all words that are used synonymously, sometimes in the same passage, all referring to the same office.

[6:15] The first qualification of an elder is godly ambition. There are two words that are appearing in our text here, and both of them have far more intensity than we recognize in the English. The Greek words have far more intensity than the English words. Take the word aspire, for instance. You see that in the verse? This saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. There's our two ambition words. And this word aspire has far more intensity than you might think it does. It means to stretch oneself out, over. It means to go to the very tippy toes of your own capacity. It really means to be reaching for something. One of the interesting things about these two words is they're both used in positive and negative senses in the Bible. So it's really not about ambition. Ambition is just a state, a state of being. It's really like, what are you aspiring toward? What are you stretching out for? And so one of the words in this text is aspire. This is someone who is sincerely desirous of this thing. Hebrews 11, 16 uses this very same Greek word when it says that they, the heroes of the faith, desired a better country that is a heavenly one. So this idea of stretching out, of straining to attain something beyond what is average for that person. And then the word desire. This is the word that in the Bible is used to describe extreme want. It can even be used to describe lust. In the story of the prodigal son, the prodigal son is starving to death. And the text says that he was feeding the pigs. His station in life had fallen to such a degree that he was feeding the pigs. And he looked at their food and longed to eat it. He was so hungry that he was craving what the pigs were eating. And the word for crave there, the word for long there is the same word here for desire. The words for aspire and desire are not conveying someone who is merely open to the idea of serving as a pastor. The words convey the idea of someone who has a sincere, earnest desire. And guess what happens when people have sincere and earnest desires? We are sinners, friends. And if you've ever desired, say, to have a baby and you're having trouble getting pregnant, or if you've ever desired to get out of debt and you're having trouble getting out of debt, if you've ever desired to overcome an addiction and you're having trouble, if you've ever desired to be better at something that's good, you know exactly what I'm talking about here. You can, in those moments, have the exact right target you should have. You want a good thing. And you want it in a way that is, you know, like, serious. Like, you really are stretching yourself out for this thing. Well, of course, friends, of course, we're sinners. Of course, there will be times when your desire for that thing exceeds its proper limits. When the ambition sort of turns dark on you. When the aspiration becomes an idol. Friends, we have a gracious God. We should be gracious with one another when it comes to people who desire good things and sometimes too much. We need to be patient with each other and understand that that's just part of what it means to be a sinner. We certainly don't want to get in the habit of looking at people with big ambitions with suspicion. We certainly don't want to get in that habit. As best I could tell, verses 1 through 13 have two purposes. And I think the church basically only uses them for one purpose.

[10:24] The one purpose that everybody seems to understand about verses 1 through 13 are that they are to be used to examine a candidate. To examine a candidate for elder and to examine a candidate for deacon. Everybody understands that. But there's another thing happening here. And the church doesn't seem to do a very good job with this one. This text is not merely to examine, but also to encourage people to aspire to these things. It's right there with us. It's right there in verse 1.

[11:00] If anyone desires, if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. See, before we get into examination, we have to encourage.

[11:13] Before we begin to help someone recognize where they stand in a particular pursuit, we probably want to at first celebrate their sincere desire for this or that thing. But if a young person is desiring to get married, first thing we should do is celebrate their desire to get married. Before we start giving them the list of all the things they need to change and work on and so on and so forth, that first thing we ought to do is like, good for you. That's a really great thing to desire. If someone's desiring to get into better shape, we should be encouraging and celebratory of that. And of course, there are going to be mixed motives. We're sinners. We want to make sure that we have a church culture that is generally pro-godly ambition. Not blindly so. We don't let people go headlong into whatever they feel like doing, even if they claim it's for the Lord. But we do need to have a default setting that is generally celebratory toward people who are attempting to do big things for God.

[12:23] That's what we see in our passage. Paul says that right at the beginning to elders, and I've just read that to you. And then at the end of his list for deacons, he says, for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

[12:42] By the way, if you're struggling, this is what I'd call the deacon hack. If you're struggling with your faith, serve somebody. Read verse 13, not as a qualification for deacons, but just as a way to reinvigorate your faith.

[12:58] Read that verse and understand, well, what does a deacon do? A deacon meets other people's needs. A deacon serves. So now you've got the deacon hack. If you're struggling with your faith, if you're struggling to see it being real, go serve people. And what will happen as a consequence of that is found in verse 13. If you serve well, you gain a good standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. It's a deacon hack.

[13:25] Okay, so what we see Paul doing, in addition to giving us a list of examination, a list for examination, it's really important we see that he is providing encouragement toward people who would aspire to do these very things.

[13:41] I'm very concerned that we, as a church, not as a local church, but as the bigger church, we tend to think that all the trouble related to leadership comes when men or their churches fail to apply the examination portion.

[14:02] We tend to think the main problem facing the church is unqualified men serving. And I would suggest that that is only partly the case. That before that can even be a problem, we have to have another problem, and that is qualified men not serving.

[14:18] We tend to think that the church is suffering because we have so many men with outsized ambition and small character. And I'm here to tell you that's part of the problem. And the other part of the problem is men with excellent character who have small ambition.

[14:33] And we have to keep both of those ideas pushing, pushing, pushing in the church. They both have to inform our view of success, of ambition, of church offices.

[14:45] I want to be very careful. As a man now kind of in a position to be some sort of a gatekeeper, I suppose, I want to be very careful to avoid something that I see happen very often and happen to me quite often when I was younger.

[15:02] There's a story in 1 Samuel 17. It's a story you all know. It's the story of David and Goliath. David is not part of the army that is being directly confronted with Goliath.

[15:13] He is literally only there because he was delivering food to his older brothers who were themselves soldiers responsible for fighting for the armies of Israel. And he arrives on a scene and he sees Goliath, this giant, calling out to the nation of Israel, summoning them, bring me a champion, bring me one person to fight.

[15:34] And whoever wins this battle, that will dictate the outcome of the entire conflict itself. And he's blaspheming God and he's blaspheming the armies of Israel. And David is not there to fight.

[15:47] He's there to deliver food. And he walks up on the scene and something is stirred inside of him that can only be described as godly ambition. If you actually read the passage, which we don't have time to do, but if you actually read the full passage, you'll see that he has some theological convictions.

[16:04] Who is this Philistine who defies the armies of the living God? And he has some personal desires. What will be done for a man who kills this giant? I can read that verse to you. Let me find that real quick here.

[16:15] This is verse 26 of 1 Samuel 17. And David said to the men who stood by him, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach of Israel?

[16:26] For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? I want to be very careful that I do not join, and I want you to be very careful that you do not join, with David's older brother.

[16:43] David's older brother responds in verse 28 with accusation, suspicion, slander even. He says, Why have you come down?

[16:54] Well, the answer is to bring you food, bro. That's why I came down. I knew you needed bread. I didn't know you also needed testicular fortitude.

[17:07] But I guess I'm here to supply both. No, for why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? Belittling, belittling, skepticism.

[17:18] Listen to this. I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle. And we can all see what's going on here. David's brother, along with the other men there, are unwilling to do the task.

[17:36] They are unwilling to make the sacrifice. They are unwilling to enter the arena. And all of their cowardice is now drawn into clear relief by a young man who brought bread and cheese, who is willing.

[17:52] Simply willing. Is he the most equipped? Absolutely not. Is he the most capable? Absolutely not. Does he actually even have any unique qualifications?

[18:03] You know, there were lots of shepherd boys in that army. And lots of them had fought off wild beasts attacking their sheep. There were lots of shepherd boys with slingshot skills.

[18:14] You see, this is the thing about 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 7. It's a sad state of affairs if we look at the list of qualifications there and think that's an exceptional person. We're all called to be those things.

[18:25] What's the differentiator? What's the first qualification? Someone who has ambition to serve God in a difficult context. Someone who is willing to enter the arena.

[18:38] Someone who has aspiration and desire. And listen, friends, I know we're not all called to do all things. And I know also sometimes we're just too tired or dare say cowardly to do all things.

[18:50] And that's fine insofar as we have to deal with God on those issues. But in our dealing with God on those issues, let's be super careful not to project our sin onto people who have aspirations to do big things for God.

[19:05] If we want to stay little, if we want to shrink back, I guess that's just how it is. But we have a secondary thing we can control. And that is to not turn the conviction of our own cowardice into skepticism toward those who have stepped up to lead.

[19:24] Is the real problem with the church that a bunch of young men have outsized ambition compared to their character? I'm not sure that's the real problem.

[19:37] The real problem seems to be why are there positions to be filled by young men? Let's suppose that David was, in fact, somewhat sinful.

[19:49] Let's suppose that he had, amongst godly ambitions, also some selfish ones. The real question that needs to be asked, friends, is why was there an opportunity for David when the entire valley was surrounded by men who were actually enlisted in the army?

[20:12] Does the church have a problem with men who have outstripped ambition compared to their character? Absolutely. But the church also has a problem with men who have character and no ambition.

[20:28] No ambition to lead. No ambition to serve as overseers. Men who are not desiring a noble task. And I want to be clear, this should not guilt anyone into that because what's happening in this text is not guilt.

[20:44] What's happening in this text is God starting a fire in someone's heart. And that's the real issue. And we just want to be careful that we join Paul in fanning into flame those sorts of desires.

[20:58] not immediately coming with a bucket of skepticism and a bucket of cynicism to pour out on what someone else believes God might be calling them to.

[21:10] I grabbed a news story that I wanted to read to you this morning that I just think is absolutely hilarious. Deep in southwest Virginia, there's a county fair where last month one woman won first, second, and third place for best cookies.

[21:30] She also swept all three awards for candy and savory bread. In fact, she won the blue ribbon for cake, pie, brownie, sweet bread, and best overall baked good, which was strawberry fudge.

[21:44] It didn't stop there. She also won for canned tomatoes, canned corn, pickled peppers, sauerkraut, relish, spaghetti sauce, and both jelly and jam. And then she took top honors in quilt and embroidery.

[22:00] Her name is Linda Skeens. One commenter on the news article posted, Linda did not come to take part. Linda came to take over.

[22:18] Listen to this. Skeens shared that she was diagnosed with leukemia in December. But in addition to her treatment, she's been trying to cook for friends and family more often.

[22:39] She was greatly flattered by comparisons to the all-time great athlete, Dale Earnhardt. What happened with Linda?

[22:52] What's going on? Can you imagine a scenario in which all the other women are very upset that Linda actually tried?

[23:05] she didn't have the cultural modesty to know the tall poppy problem. And she just decided, I like canned tomatoes and cookies and sheet cakes.

[23:19] And you know what? There doesn't seem to be many people entering these things. The person I respect, Linda, I feel sorry for her husband. Like, can you imagine? I've been in situations like this.

[23:31] The wife overcommits. And you're like carrying, like, you know how hard, immediately I thought about how would I transport all of this stuff?

[23:42] Because I guarantee you, Linda just did the cooking. Listen, we need to have a culture that celebrates godly ambition, understanding that because we are sinners, no ambition is only godly.

[24:01] And we need to walk with people encouraging them toward the ambition while helping them sort out the inevitable influences that sin brings.

[24:15] I would never want it to be thought that there's some reason. I don't want the church to ever have a situation where you look at all the things that have to be done and there's one name.

[24:27] on everything. That's just dishonoring to God. He gets great honor in raising up many people to fulfill many gifts. And so, it's kind of cute when it happens in the Virginia County Fair, but it can't happen here.

[24:44] We need people doing all these things. Well, that's the ambition, which I consider to be the first qualification. And the second point I want to bring to you is the aim of that ambition.

[24:59] Let's look at the text again. Verse 1, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

[25:10] Now, we've talked about the ambition, but we need to see the aim of that ambition. What's the actual thing this person aspires to, desires? Well, it's conveyed or communicated in this verse as both a title and a task.

[25:27] As both a title and a task. I see that. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, that word there is a compound word in the Greek. It's a noun form, a titular form, if you will, of an action.

[25:43] Of two actions, I guess you could say. The word is episkopos in the Greek. Skopio is the word for looking after, to watch, to tend to, to care.

[25:57] And the word epi is over. So this is why we get the word overseer. But I like the word looker-outer or looker-after-er.

[26:12] It's really the idea of overwatch, but it's communicating, not some sort of purely managerial thing happening, where someone's making sure that so-and-so isn't eating cookies when they're not supposed to, or pulling a Linda and baking all the cookies.

[26:29] It really is just this idea of care, an over-watcher, a caretaker. We can get more clarity on what the word means if we look at one of the qualifications listed in verse 4, where Paul writes, he must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

[26:53] For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? Well, this is sort of your explanation of what it means, of what Paul's talking about in verse 1.

[27:07] What does Paul mean by overseer? What does episkopos really mean? What is he talking about? What is the title? What is the task? It's pretty clear in verses 4 through 5.

[27:19] And this is why I have the title I do for my sermon. If you want to know what is really aspired to, what is really being celebrated as a noble task, you just look at verses 4 and 5, and you see what?

[27:35] It's basically being a church dad. It's basically being a church father. Someone who looks after the affairs of a church like the way a man looks after the affairs of his home.

[27:53] And that's why this qualification is so central to the qualifications in general. Think about it this way. Does a husband and a father look after the budget and the house and make sure his lawn is mowed and so on and so forth?

[28:10] Yeah. Of course. So too with pastoring, there are administrative, facility, budget, so on and so forth, website, what a pain that is.

[28:24] Why does a man do these things? He does those things simply as an extension of his love for his wife and kids. He is not a professional lawnmower.

[28:39] He is not a professional gutter cleaner outer. He is not a professional barbecuer. He does those things because those things serve his family.

[28:50] This is what a pastor is. A pastor is to the church what a husband is to a bride. A pastor is to a church, to the bride of Christ, what a husband is to his bride.

[29:03] A pastor is to the children of God what a good father is to his own children. This is what we're talking about. We said, you've got to have ambition. We should really aspire to do this. We aspire to do what?

[29:15] We need men who aspire at some point in their life to bring sincere dad energy to the care of the local church.

[29:27] That's what this verse is saying. Now let me bring your attention back to the dynamic as mentioned in a moment before and that is there's a task here and there's a title here.

[29:38] The title is episkopos. It's essentially a formal noun title representing an action and that action is what he refers to here as the task.

[29:50] The task of dadding a church. The task of being an overwatcher, an overlooker, a taker-carer of. I love my hyphens. I want you to understand something.

[30:03] Young men, men in general. You can do the task without having the title. You can't have the title unless you're already doing the task.

[30:17] It's like what's the fundamental kind of gatekeeping thing that ensures that you get the men in this position that should be and not the ones who shouldn't be.

[30:30] It's not that complicated. complicated. We make it more complicated than it is. You can do the task of looking out for the church, of being a church dad, without the title of overseer.

[30:46] You can't have the title. This is the rule. You can't have the title unless you're already doing the work. How can I say that with such certainty?

[30:57] you because as I said at the beginning, the first qualification is desire and aspire. As I mentioned, the words there, desire and aspire, have intensity to them, almost like sketchy intensity, almost like overflowing the brim.

[31:17] It's like, you want this a little too much kind of vibes. That's the desire that Paul says is the first qualification. And what I'm suggesting to you this morning is that that desire, if it is that strong, will already be manifest in a man's life, well before he grabs the title.

[31:38] Well before he ever gets the title, he will be doing the task. If someone were to come to me and say, I strongly desire to be an overseer, I should not be surprised, it should be pretty obvious because he's been overseeing a lot and I've noticed his overseeing.

[31:55] Be clear, because there are some men who desire the title and not the task. And to those men who say, no, that's just not for you.

[32:07] We're not doing that. It's just not for you. Now, I don't know of anyone in our church who's that way. Let's talk about the other problem.

[32:18] Some who want the task without the title. Can you see why that could be a problem for you, like a problem about something going on in you?

[32:34] Can you see that there is a lower threshold of responsibility and you get to opt in and opt out and turn off and turn on when you decide, I'm just going to do the task, I don't care about the title.

[32:45] That may not be as humble as it sounds. Because with the title comes accountability and with the title comes responsibility.

[32:57] Whereas if you just want to do the task without the title, like I'm glad for that, praise God, and certainly we should all be doing that, but I just want you to understand to some degree there could be something going on there that isn't as humble as it sounds.

[33:12] It could be more self-serving than you might first believe. We can all see the problem with the guy who wants the title and not the task. We need to have a category also for the person who wants to think of themselves as the task doer but doesn't want to hold the title.

[33:33] That may or may not be a problem. Just putting it before your attention. The truth is that what we're really looking for is best summarized in a phrase I heard I read a long time ago and it's always stuck in my head.

[33:49] The phrase is the enthusiasm of an amateur. I think I read it in Nietzsche actually. That phrase has stuck in my head for the longest time. The enthusiasm of the amateur. What does that mean?

[34:01] In the context that it was! It simply means an amateur is simply someone who doesn't get paid to do a thing. He actually pays to do a thing. He has a regular job that he does to take care of his family and so on and so forth and literally takes some of his money to pay to get to do the other thing.

[34:23] When I was growing up, close to fairgrounds by the way, there were pretty common to drive, ride my bike past someone's house and there would be a group of men with bush lights working on a car.

[34:43] And that car was designed for what? On the weekends I go and race this car. Do I get any money for this? No. I just love to race cars. I love to work on cars.

[34:53] I just love it. So not only is he not getting paid to do it. He's paying to do it. His wife's not happy with the amount of money. He's investing in this car. That's what an amateur is.

[35:05] And lots of us understand that. Lots of us understand that there's this sort of amateur thing that happens in some of us and we just get super into this thing.

[35:18] It is absolutely incredible to me that God would stir up in some men's hearts that level of exuberance for serving the church.

[35:36] That's amazing. And that's what this text is saying. That's the heart of this text. You mean you have amateur enthusiasm to spend your weekends and your time bringing dad energy to the church.

[35:57] That's amazing. That's why it has to be celebrated. It's pretty incredible. It's a pretty incredible thing. And that's where I want to leave you. I want to leave you with an encouragement. Not about pastors but about the God who makes pastors.

[36:11] This is pretty cool. Pastors give or take I have my thoughts. Depends on the day.

[36:23] But guys let's understand God loves his people so much he makes pastors.

[36:40] It's a crazy thing. You know in doing the preparation for this of course you look at all the instances of this word or that word and I did that with overseer and found first Peter too.

[36:53] Beginning in verse 22 let me read that to you. He committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds for you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls you know we talk about the gospel a lot of providence and we talk about our lostness and our need for christ and so on and so forth but you know a lot of times we all churches do this you get stuck on one facet one piece of the prism and you start looking at the gospel only through that and in our theological tradition that's usually like the legal stuff the justification the imputation and so on and so forth but we overseer of your souls and it's incredible to me to realize that one of the things it means to be lost is that

[38:42] I was made to have God shepherd me but when I'm not his when I'm lost I don't have a shepherd for my soul now I still have everything else that's the problem I still have my sheepiness I still have the wolves I still have the weather I still have hunger and thirst and I still have other sheep that can be a problem so the rest of my life just goes on but I'm living a life without a shepherd this is not a life I can live without a shepherd and so let's remember one of the ways that the Bible talks about lostness it's really where we get our idea of lostness and that is you were straying like sheep without a shepherd this stirred up compassion for Jesus you look at Gethsemane and Jesus is praying to do the will of the father and you look at the cross and realize with a single word he could have come down he could have commanded angels concerning himself and come down from the cross and you like what is going on oh what great manner of love

[39:54] John says what's going on well one thing we know that's going on is that he would look out at people and have compassion for them because they were harassed and confused like sheep without a shepherd and so one of the fundamental things that Jesus came to do was to give every single person in this room the shepherd of their souls Jesus Christ the great shepherd the great overseer and so I mean this is incredible that he he loves us so much to know he does he he looks down and really sees it as it is and says well they've got the wolves they've got the hunger they've got the weather it's all it's a terrible life without a shepherd I will come and be their shepherd though they themselves have gone astray each turn to his own way Isaiah!

[40:54] the creation the world the world around you to fit his will for you and so one day you're lost and you're not going to church and you don't know anything about any of this and then he becomes your shepherd he saves you and he becomes your shepherd and then the next thing before you know it Lord willing you start going to church and you realize that he did!

[41:14] in the strong desire to watch over people a strong desire to be a father to a church and that desire is so strong that it endures even when the people don't like it and it endures even when the pay isn't great and endures even when the culture is hostile and so on and so suddenly not only has God expressed his goodness to you in giving you his own shepherding he then puts actual people in your life who wake up in the morning and dutifully for years pray for you and work through God's word and think through okay how can I help these people with this thing or that thing and so on and so forth none of this is self aggrandizing don't look at the shepherds look at the God who cares for you so much to make people willingly give up their lives to care for you that's an incredible

[42:20] God and I wanted to bring that to you before communion because the passage itself all begins it's all rooted in how did you get this life how did you get this amazing gift of having a God who now shepherds your soul and puts people in your life who care about you and willing to give their lives to make sure that you know God's word and that you're prayed for and that you're cared for when things get hard and so on and so forth it's like what's going on it's like well Jesus that's what's going on he committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threatened but continued trusting himself to him who judges justly and here is your salvation he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness and so I introduced the table to you today which is the evidence that he has himself borne our sin with his body and with his spilled!

[43:20] blood and I say come and celebrate the Lord's skill