Sermons

Good morning, if you can open your Bibles please to Luke chapter 20. Luke chapter 20. It's really good that we're at that point of the year. I love this point of the year where we're getting to routine. We have our Sunday school classes up and running again starting today. We have Women of the Word and the Men's Ministries and all of the normal rhythms and patterns. I love this time of year because you know what's coming. It's predictable.

There's just so much more kind of touch points that the elders have with the people. It's a great time of year. So, I love this kind of fall semester where, you know, we have Thanksgiving, but that's way, way late in November. And then Christmas, even further down the road. So, we have this state of predictability. And I think that kind of rhythm is good for the church.

And if you have maybe come, maybe you've moved here recently, or maybe you've started college, or whatever it happens to be, let me encourage you to think about cementing your time that you have here at Trinity in a Sunday school class. It's just such a helpful way to get to know people better, to be around people, to just have more time with the body.

Now this morning we come to Luke 20:45 to 21:4. It's not really a very big section, but it just runs over the two chapters. The last paragraph of chapter 20, the first paragraph of 21. And if I was to title the sermon this morning it would be “Preying in the Temple Courts.” Not “praying” in the temple courts, but “Preying in the Temple Courts.” And you'll see very quickly why.

I want you to have in the back of your mind a picture of an ancient fortress, big walls, huge gates with bars across the gates, something that's designed to protect the vulnerable. The walls are thick. The gates are locked. Wolves, threats, dangers on the outside have no way of affecting anybody inside. The weary, the broken, the vulnerable, they have a safe place. They don't have to be on edge. They can lower their guard because the threats out there are held back. But the danger isn't that something will scale the walls. The danger isn't something on the outside, rather in this picture, the danger comes from within. The very guardians of this city, those who are appointed to watch the gates. They kind of turn around and they see the defenseless flock and they rub their hands together and see, instead of souls to protect, resources that can be exploited.

That type of ugly, self-serving, exploiting the very people that they are meant to defend is a painful but real pattern that marks church history. All the way through the history of the church, there have been those who rise to the highest ranks with a desire to exploit the sheep.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the church leadership of those days developed a legal right known as the mortuary fee. Whenever somebody would die, the church had the right to come in and to take whatever was deemed second best, the second-best possession as a kind of church serving tax, and they had it legally ratified and established in numerous countries all around what would become Europe later.

They would go in and they would take the second-best ox, or the second-best cow, or the second-best tool, or the second-best whatever it happened to be that belonged to the peasants, the laborers, the lowly of that particular place. Husband would die, and the lord of the manor would come and he would take the first, the first most valuable possession as his possession. Then the church would come in and take the second most valuable possession. The second-best thing is their possession, leaving the grieving widow and the hungry children with whatever was left. And for a lot of them, there wasn't anything. In fact, a lot of the times, by the time the church came to get second best, there wasn't an ox, there wasn't a tool, they really didn't have anything.

And so, they would go and they would strip the corpse of the very clothes that were on it and take that to sell on, so at least the church got something. The parish priest or the monastic bailiff would turn up at the door and seize whatever was worth seizing, leaving the widow with nothing. If the widow protested, the church leaders would withhold Christian burial from her husband. Or they would threaten her with excommunication, leaving her spiritually terrified about what that would mean and what that would bring to her deceased husband in the afterlife, or she could be financially ruined. That was her choice.

And that systematic extortion of these vulnerable families, it was so prevalent that it actually became one of the primary drivers for the anti-clerical peasant revolts that marked the latter part of the medieval age. And what happened was (that) these church leaders grew wealthy, immensely wealthy off the properties, off the belongings that they seized directly from starving families at the absolute lowest moment of grief.

And this isn't just an ancient problem. This is a problem that you could come right up to modern America, and you see the same thing happen today. You think of the televangelism scandals of the 20th century, the PTL ministry collapse in the 1980s. Leaders who built multi-million dollar industries, empires on television, and they would stand in front of the cameras and they would look straight into the heart of the camera and they would smile with their sparkling toothy grins at lonely seniors, at grieving widows, at sick people, desperate for hope, and they would promise them a heavenly stake in an earthly kingdom if they would just sow that thousand dollar seed of faith.

And primarily it was people on fixed social security incomes, that they would mail in their grocery money. It was grieving people who emptied their accounts of the little that they had. And where did that money go? It didn't go to feed the poor. It went to buy luxury cars, mansions, gold-plated fixtures for the leaders. The leadership would look down the camera at desperate and defenseless people, and they didn't see souls to shepherd, they saw an audience to monetize. And they did it in the name of Christ. They took that deep, sacred longing that people had to know God more, to be closer to Him, to invest in the eternal, and they profited off the back of the vulnerable.

Two thousand years before, Jesus was angered to see the exact same thing in the temple courts that Wednesday of Holy Week. The religious leadership of His day profiting off the back of the vulnerable. Would you stand please as we read Luke chapter 20 and verse 45. Luke chapter 20 and reading from verse 45.

(Scripture Reading) “And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.””

“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.””

Let's pray.

(Prayer) Heavenly Father, we ask that You would give us insight into the text we have just read. Help us to understand what is being declared by these words and how we should respond in light of it. We thank You that though there is the reality of corrupt leadership even in the church, even in this day we still have the same problem. Yet, Lord, we thank You that there is a Good Shepherd who highlights that reality and yet promises to care for His own. Help us in our study to see more of Him, that we would heed His warning, that we would be equipped as a result, and that we would love Him more. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Have a seat.

Marks of hungry leaders (20:45–47)

Here is a text where Jesus paints a picture of self-aggrandizing scribes, and He wants His disciples to beware of them and of the devastation that this type of leadership brings to the defenseless, the very people that the leadership should be caring for. And so, the first point I want to highlight in the text this morning are the marks of hungry leaders. The marks of hungry leaders. And you see it there in that paragraph at the end of chapter 20. Jesus begins by warning His disciples in front of the crowd. In the temple that day, He says, beware of the scribes.

And what He does immediately after is He lists five traits that mark these corrupt leaders. The five traits that always mark dangerous religious leaders. Five traits we could even say that continue to mark broken leadership in the church today. If you want to identify broken leaders, there are five marks that often sit upon them. And the first one is pomp. They are marked by pomp.

Verse 46 describes those individuals as those who like to walk around in long robes. The long robes that are being spoken about there, I believe, are the prayer shawls that individuals would wear whenever they came to worship. And these prayer shawls would be made of wool or, if you had more money, maybe linen, and they would have tassels at the end of it, tassels on the four corners. Now, what was known of that day was the scribes, those teachers of the law, they would wear the prayer shawl with the tassels, but they would have their tassels customized. They would have extra-long tassels added to their prayer robes. And Jesus speaks of that very thing in Matthew 23:5. These prayer robes, the scribes' prayer robes, they would look like that of the common man, but they would have these giant tassels, so that when the scribe rocked back and forward in a motion of prayer that was the common way to pray in Judaism at the time, when he would rock back and forward, the tassels would sway in an ostentatious, over-the-top sort of way. When they would walk, they would drag those tassels behind them.

And kind of akin to the old clerical collar that maybe some of you have in your imagination that often accompanies that picture of the religious minister or the priest, that clerical collar, these scribes were marked by their unique prayer garments, huge tassels.

They stood out as a result. People recognized them as being of a particular religious class. It was their calling card. It let people know they were important religious leaders. And so really what we have here is these individuals are dressing to stand out, not to blend in, to stand out. They wanted everybody else to see that they were important, that they worked for the Lord, that they had a particular role. They loved the pomp. Secondly, we see of these individuals, not only did they love the pomp, they loved the praise. Verse 46 continues, they love greetings in the marketplace. They love greetings in the marketplace.

That's not so much speaking of a hello, how are you that everybody gets, but there was a particular expectation in Jerusalem in that day that people, when they saw the scribe with his huge tasseled prayer cloth, that they would recognize them as set apart, that they would note that they were distinct.

And so, there was an expectation in the society if the scribe turned up in his garments in the marketplace, everybody was to rise. You know the old boarding school mentality, when a teacher walks into the room, the classroom stands until the teacher says you may sit. Well, that mentality marked the society that day. When the scribe walked into the marketplace, everybody stood at attention. Did they recognize there was someone important in our midst? You see it today, don't you? People who are obsessed in the church with their title. Oh, I'm Dr. So-and-so. The Very Reverend so-and-so. I don't know how you become very reverend, but you get to be if you're in church circles. Archbishop so-and-so.

Now, I understand sometimes the people of the church want to honor their leaders. That's a good mentality. What's not a good mentality is whenever the leaders love it. That's the point in the text. These men, it's the very word that Jesus used, love greetings in the marketplace. It's amazing, isn't it, how men with power often obsess over how big their following is, how easily recognized they are, and yet they still don't care one ounce about the very people who recognize them. They're marked by pomp, they're marked by praise, and by position. Look at the rest of verse 46.

These same individuals also seek the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts. The synagogues are not the temple; they're the local churches. You can think of them as the local churches, the people, the place that locals go to, to have the word read to them, to pray together, to carry out normal acts of worship. And feasts are those occasions that are common to people, celebrations, weddings, funerals, anniversaries, significant occasions, when a party is called for, and the idea is when the scribe turns up, he gets to sit at the top table. In the synagogue, he gets the best seat. There were benches that were left around the side and special benches up at the front of the synagogue that didn't sit on the front row but sat at the front facing the people.

It's like, these are the ones who keep an eye on you, make sure you don't fall asleep during the sermon. That was the idea, the place of honor. If you imagine, we had special seats that sat up here. In fact, some... In church history, often elements of Presbyterianism, Anglicanism, often the elders, the officials of the church would sit in a row at the front to watch, to oversee the congregation.

Well, these scribes, they love that particular seat in the synagogue, the position. They wanted to sit beside grandfather at the top table because they wanted everybody to know that they were important, that they mattered. So, this type of broken leadership is marked by pomp, praise, position, and fourthly, you're gonna have to forgive me for this one.

I got carried away with my P's. You know how it happens, like a pastor or a preacher, they have like five points, four of them really work, and one of them, they have to get on Google and find the P that nobody has ever heard of. That's what we got today. Are you ready for it? I don't even know if I can get my mouth all around it. Parasitism. And you all went, uh-huh.

Think of a parasite, that's what the word is speaking of. It's the act where one would come, a foreign entity, and reside in the host and eat and profit, be nourished off the back of another. And that's actually the perfect word for the picture that Jesus presents. These individuals are seen to be those who come in, latch upon an individual and feast off them. Look at how verse 47 begins. Jesus says of these scribes, they are those who devour widows' houses. They devour widows' houses. Dale Ralph Davis says the idea is they're sponging off widow hospitality. In other words, they're the individual that comes in a pretense of, oh, I really want to hear how you're doing. And really all he wants to know is what's in your cupboard. What can you feed me today? How much can you write on the check? What can I go home with?

And the idea is that the widow, vulnerable, needing care, susceptible to strong men, is preyed upon, chewed up, and spat out. Now we know that a widow today, that's a sad position to be in, to be a widow. They've lost someone special to them. But in Jesus' day, a widow was something more than that. To say a widow, it was synonymous with saying the most vulnerable in society. Today we might think of the individual who lives under the bridge, under the bypass, who's mentally unstable, who has absolutely nothing, and is just easy game for anybody who wants to take advantage. When Jesus uses the term widow, that's what He means.

He's not simply saying one who lost her husband. He's using it in a synonymous way to describe the most vulnerable in society. And the most vulnerable in society are devoured by the very people who are meant to be the religious leaders. The last mark then that we see of these corrupt religious leaders is they love parade, parade.

Verse 47 also describes there's a thing that marks them; they have a pretense to make long prayers. Now they're not praying to God because there's a lot to pray about. They're not praying for a long time because they know the needs of the congregation so well that there's so much to unburden before the Lord to bring to the heavenly throne. Rather, Jesus is clear, they pray out of a pretense.

In other words, a show, a false show. They want to make it seem like they're close to God. They want to make it seem to appear like they talk to God a lot. But the idea is clear in the text, it's all a sham. The picture is of a pretend pietism that seeks to be seen by men, to be revered by men, to have power over men and women, because they are perceived to be close to God. And yet the very same individual who gives these long prayers to be seen by men actually doesn't really have a thought of God in his mind. You see the picture that Jesus paints of these individuals.

Ultimately, we could sum it up by saying it's all about exalting self. That's what marks these men. It's all about exalting self. So, the type of church leader that look clean, that look put together, that look very pious, that say things with authority, that know the scriptures well, but they know the scriptures well and use it in a self-serving way. That's what drives these men.

And so, Jesus declares in verse 47, they will receive not just judgment, greater judgment. J.C. Ryle makes a big deal about this. There are degrees of punishment in hell. And those who would exploit the people of God, they will receive. Not the notorious sinner on the street, but those who would dare exploit the sheep for their own self-serving means, they will receive the greatest sort of judgment.

Part of the idea that Jesus is presenting to His disciples is that we can leave it to God. God will ultimately rectify that. God will ultimately judge that. No televangelist, no preacher that has acted with a self-serving spirit will escape the judgment of God. We can leave it with God ultimately.

And yet there's more here because what does verse 45 say? Jesus is speaking to whom? What does it say? His disciples. He's speaking to His disciples. Those who are going to lead the church. Those who Jesus is going to pass the baton to. And He's speaking to them in particular in front of the crowd, because He does want them to know that God will deal with religious leaders ultimately, but also leaders of the church, disciples, those who are true.

You do need to be aware of the present destruction these sorts of individuals can cause. He's saying to those future leaders of the church, He's certainly saying don't be like them. Don't let these things mark you. In fact, elders of our church, that's something we need to take on board, isn't it? As we hear these five characteristics, we must pray, Lord, please let this not be true of me.

We must endeavor where we see any seed of that in our life to chase it out. When we think about today, all the Sunday school classes starting up, what a wonderful thing. But part of that means there's a lot of ministry leaders, even in this room this morning, those who will teach God's word, those who will pray with others, those who have been given a charge from the elders of the church to minister in the Sunday school hour. That's a wonderful responsibility, but it's a serious responsibility.

Lord, let these ugly characteristics not mark my soul. Protect me from that type of ambition. It also warns us to beware. That's literally what Jesus says, beware of these types of leaders, because they do seek position in the church. They have, and church history is littered with this story, an ability, these types of individuals to weasel their way in to the top roles. And the effect is devastating. Religion will always, true religion will always attract these sorts of people. And if these sorts of people go unchecked, they will hurt the people of God. So beware, beware.

Effect of hungry leaders (21:1–4)

The second thing I want you to see in the text that Jesus immediately addresses is the effect, the effect of hungry leaders. You see that in these first four verses of chapter 21. The effect is very simple, the needy starve. The needy starve.

Now again, we've gotta correct our mentality. I know it feels weird, doesn't it? A little bit of chapter 20, a little bit of chapter 21, but remember there is no chapter break in the original manuscripts. It's meant to flow one into the other. In fact, when I say flow one into the other, that implies that there's a division. There's not.

The next word after condemnation is Jesus. So immediately after Jesus pronounces the condemnation that will come to these broken leaders, these corrupt self-serving leaders, it says, Jesus looked up. He's just warned about the personality, the characteristics that mark these dangerous leaders in the church, and He lifts up His eyes and immediately sees an example of the damage that these broken leaders have caused. Look at verse one. Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box.

The offering box was more, well it was, it wasn't more, it was a horn. Ram's horns. Copper plated, ram's horns, it sat out, and the idea was you would go up with your money, you didn't have notes, you had coins, and you would pour it into these horns, and it both kind of, everything rattled down, and it was collected at the bottom. Stopped people being able to steal from the offering box, because the horn kind of carried it away.

But it also made a big noise. And a lot of showy religious people would go to the money changers and they would, instead of just getting money, they would get as many small coins as possible. So that when they went up with their bag and they tipped it into the horn offering, it rattled all the way down and made a spectacle, very much trumpeted their offering.

And so, it's not surprising when verse one says Jesus looked up because there's a big noise. There's a big noise because verse one says some of the rich people came and gave a very noisy gift. And so, Jesus, and you can imagine everybody else, looks up at the big rattle. But then verse two says, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.

Can you picture the sound? The contrast is audible, significant. Again, the widow, not simply to think of one who has lost her husband, but the most vulnerable in society. Notoriously poor. Notoriously vulnerable. And the idea is reinforced by the fact that this particular widow gives two copper coins.

Specifically, what's being referred to as the smallest coin in circulation. Sometimes you see in the New Testament, a denarius spoken of, that was the equivalent of a daily wage. You get one denarius is the average daily wage. Well, the two copper coins that are spoken of are the equivalent of four minutes of work for the average employer or employee. Four minutes of work, it's a tiny little amount. It's minuscule.

In fact, according to the law, the smallest offering that could be given in the temple was two copper coins. It was this particular offering. It was the smallest amount that could be given. But for this particular lady, she gave the smallest amount because it was all she could give.

And Jesus makes that point very clear. After this act, she is literally penniless. The word in the ESV translated poor, he saw a poor widow. Some versions translate it needy widow. It's used only here in the New Testament. It describes not the fact that she simply doesn't have a lot of money, but she is in a state of poverty. She's impoverished. She gives a meager gift, hardly worth noticing, but Jesus notices. And He draws attention to that expression, verse three.

He said, truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on. Hers is a heart of total commitment. She gave her all; she put it all on the altar. You can assume she gives out of a spirit of faith. This is a lady who gives with a sincere affection for God. It's a sincere act of worship. It's given with hope that the Lord would bless.

But the context is making the point, that though she gives sincerely into a system described by God in the Old Testament as one that was meant to then in turn take care of her, it's not gonna work. She has given sacrificially to the Lord, but according to the Old Testament law code, she was then to be taken care of.

She was to be provided for. She was to be looked after by the church of that day. But the corrupt leadership simply gobbled her up. They took the little money she had and they left her destitute. The Old Testament's law code, the Old Testament worship system was beautiful in its design. A lady like that should have been able to give and then be provided for. But she gave and then went home. And old Mother Hubbard, the cupboard was bare. She had nothing.

Did you see what Jesus is drawing attention to? Let me tell you the marks of corrupt leadership in the church. And now let me show you the effect. When religious leadership doesn't act the way, they are meant to, it's the people that hurt. God's law doesn't call people to give and starve. In fact, even today, it's the same.

In 1 Corinthians 16:2, it gives us a wonderful pattern of how we should think about our own giving to the church. It says, on the first day of every week, it's Sunday, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. The idea is that there is thoughtful, purposeful giving that's proportional to your income. There's a wise way to give. But it's also to be given in a context where the leadership cares for you, where the church family cares for one another.

And that's not just a New Testament principle, that did exist in the Old Testament. This widow is doing her part, but the system is chewing her up and spitting her out. The leadership is failing to do that which God calls them to do. So, Jesus is not so much commending the widow, I think there is an aspect of that. Here's a widow that does her part, does what she was meant to. But primarily what He's showing here, it's not a commendation of the widow, it's a condemnation of the system, primarily of broken leadership within the system that takes a faithful widow and throws her on the skip.

Hungry leaders gobble up the vulnerable among the people of God.

The beauty of the ultimate leader

So, the marks of hungry leaders, the effect of hungry leaders, and the last thing I want you to see in the text is the beauty, the beauty of the ultimate leader. If the point right here primarily is, and it is, don't be like, disciples, don't be like these broken leaders, watch out for them. If you were one of the disciples, the natural question you ask is, well, if I'm not meant to be like that, what am I meant to be like? And standing in front of the disciples that day was the answer to that question. What are they meant to be like?

You see, Jesus Himself is standing in the temple that day as the alternative. In fact, that's too small a word. He's not the alternative. He's the supreme. He is the leader. He is the Messiah. He is the One that is in charge. He is the One. Remember a few verses before, Psalm 110:1 is quoted by Jesus. He is the One upon the throne. The One who is reigning. The One who is in charge. And with Him, we find the opposite.

There is no pomp with Him. In fact, Scripture says there is nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He didn't stand out for His dress. There's nothing showy in His appearance. He doesn't, He's not motivated by the praise of man. He doesn't seek praise like those scribes. In fact, the Bible says in humility, He counted others. He doesn't count Himself and want everybody else to lift Him high. He gave thought to others. He doesn't seek position, the best seats. In fact, Philippians 2, He took to Himself the role of a servant. There's no parasitism with Him. He came not to be served, but to serve. There's no parade and show in any aspect of His life, but I think specifically of His prayer life. In contrast to the scribes, what is it Jesus taught about prayer?

In Matthew 6:5, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues, in the street corners, to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And that's exactly what Jesus did. Before anybody else woke up, He was on the mountain praying quietly, interceding for His people. You see what we have here. Standing in the temple that day is One who is the antithesis of these types of scribes. The complete opposite in motivation, and drive in them.

a. He sees those others miss

You think of the widow here. Psalm 68:5 says, Psalm 68:5.

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. But Jesus is in the temple. He's in the holy habitation. And unlike the scribes who chewed her up and spat her out, He lifts up His eyes and He sees the widow who gave it all. Jesus sees those others miss. J.C. Ryle says about this moment, he thinks it not beneath him, Jesus, to observe the conduct of a certain poor widow. Let us remember that the Lord Jesus never changes. The thing that we read of in this passage before us is the thing that is going on over all the world.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place. Nothing is too little to escape his observation. No act too trifling to be noted down in the book of his remembrance. The same hand that formed the sun, moon, and stars was the hand that formed the tongue of the gnat and the wing of the fly with perfect wisdom. The same eye that sees the council chambers of the kings and emperors is the eye that notices all that goes on in the laborer's cottage. Friends, He sees.

I know in a congregation our size there are some who are in this moment more vulnerable than others, hurting more than others, wrestling with things more than others. And the reality is sometimes the elders don't see it. We don't know. We desire to care for the people, but there's an aspect where we just don't know all that our church family are going through.

But the Good Shepherd sees. He sees every aspect, every hardship, every trial.

b. He cares for those others miss

And not only does He see, but the Scriptures make clear He cares for those others miss. He cares. Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

Why? Because we have a heavenly Father that cares. We have a Savior who loves. We have a Holy Spirit who comforts. Friends, when we see the ugliness of broken leadership that so often marks the reality of the church, it should cause us to be all the more thankful that we have a Savior who sees and we have One who actively cares for His people. He will supply your needs.

c. He gives His all so none of His sheep are missed

He sees, He cares, and He gives His all so that none of His sheep are missed. You think about it. He's in the temple on Wednesday. Two days later, He will hang upon the cross. In contrast to those scribes who would take, take, take. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, gives His life for the sheep. I'm sure there are some in this particular congregation, there's some parts of Christianity, some parts of the Bible, some parts of this good news that you find compelling. Maybe what's caused a hesitation to repent and believe the gospel as your own is you've seen corrupt leadership. You've been burnt by the church. You've had those who should have looked after instead prey upon you.

But one of the things we see in the life of Christ, as He stands in complete contrast, our hope is not found in Christian leaders, but in the Christ who is the head of the church. And if maybe you have come from a background of hurt, of abuse, in the context of the church, let me ask you not to look to pastors and elders, but to look to the person of Jesus Christ, because He alone is right. He alone is good.

And the reality is, for those who are Christians here this morning, in Him we find the Good Shepherd. Oh, I hope and I am genuinely thankful for the elders, for the under-shepherds we have here in this church. I have every confidence in them. I've only been impressed by the real way they serve amongst you. Yet, should they falter, should they fall, our hope is not in them, our hope is in the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who never fails to care for His people.

Let's pray.

(Closing prayer) Heavenly Father, we are so thankful. We are so thankful for the leadership that You have provided for this church, for the time that they pour over the word, the time that they genuinely pray for the people. The time they seek the counsel and come alongside them.

Lord, we have so much to be thankful for as a church because of the under-shepherds that You have provided for this particular place. And yet, Lord, we are reminded this morning our hope is not in they, but in He, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we ask that You would allow us the grace to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of the faith, and that with our eyes set upon Him alone, You would give us the grace to run well, the race that is marked out for us. Lord, we thank You that in Christ we see One who saw the vulnerable, One who cared for the vulnerable, One who would give His life for lost and broken people that would come to Him in repentance and faith. We're thankful for that benediction we read in Scripture that I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. (End)

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