Sermons

Introduction

So, with that in mind, I'd like to read Luke 5:27-32, and then pray and ask for the Lord's kindness and help as we seek to consider and understand these words. Luke 5:27 says, "After this He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And He said to him, 'Follow Me.' And leaving everything, he rose and followed Him. 

"And Levi made Him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at His disciples, saying, 'Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?' And Jesus answered them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.'" Would you pray with me? 

[Prayer] Lord, we do ask for the help of Your Spirit. I pray for clarity of thought and of words that what I say would be a fair and helpful edifying explanation of Your word. I pray, Lord, that all who are gathered here today, that we would carefully consider Your word and seek to believe it and live it for the glory of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Savior. Amen. [End] 

Christians have to make a choice about how we are going to interact with those who do not know Christ. How are you going to live and act and react and interact with those who are not believers? For some, they choose isolation. They try to remove themselves from anything non-Christian, anyone who is not a believer. They try to live in sort of a bunker mentality. They try to avoid any relationship, any conversation, any interaction at all with someone who is not a Christian. They just strive to live in this sort of bunker removed from the rest of the world. 

There are others who choose not isolation, but they choose assimilation. They try to act like the world and talk like the world, and maybe they go to church on Sunday, but they're trying to be as much like the world as they can, either to be loved by the world or at least to not stand out in any way from the world. And both of these ways of living are very dangerous for believers. 

A bunker mentality is to forget that we are to be ambassadors for Christ. Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." If we are a bunker mentality, if we retreat from the world, if we have no relationship with unbelievers, how are we going to be salt and light to those who need to know Christ? Conversely, if we live with this worldly mentality where we try to be like the world and liked by the world, then we completely forget that we as a church have literally been called out from that kind of mind. That's what the church is, the called-out ones. 

And so we want to avoid a bunker mentality, and we certainly can't have a worldly mentality There is a third way to live and that is through biblical evangelism, where we seek to cultivate genuine friendships with people that we would care about, and love them and serve them with the hope and the goal of being able to share the gospel and bring them to a place of repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We could call that a mission mentality. 

And so, I ask you this morning, which of those best defines you – bunker mentality, stay away from the world, have nothing to do with anyone who is not a believer; a worldly mentality where you actually end up being just like the world and trying to fit into the world; or a mission mentality where you recognize that you've been saved, called out of the world, but you are left in the world not to be of the world, but to be an ambassador for Christ and to take the gospel into the world for the sake of those who desperately need salvation? 

I think we see a lot, and we'll learn, I pray, a lot of important things in this passage. And one of the things I think that we will learn is what it's like to live life on mission with a mindset that says we are here to impact the darkness, not to remove ourselves from people who don't know Christ, certainly not to try to be like those who do not know Christ, but to influence for the sake of the name of the Lord Jesus those who desperately need to know Christ. We also see in this passage a reminder that God often uses the most unlikely people to accomplish His will. 

Consistency

So, we walk through this passage together. I'll give you just a few words you can make note of to help follow the flow of what's going on. The first word I want you to make note of is the word "consistency, consistency." Right before we get to Luke 5:27, a similar passage is recorded for us in Mark's gospel. Mark adds a detail that I want to give you because I think it helps us. 

In Mark 2:13, it says, "He went out again beside the sea; and all the crowd was coming to Him, and He was teaching them." This is what Jesus is doing leading right up to Luke 5:27. Jesus was teaching because that's what He was, that's who He was. He was a teacher. He was a preacher. He was consistent in His message and consistent in His mission. 

And we don't have to wonder what would He have been teaching, the Bible tells us. The Scripture says that Jesus was proclaiming the gospel of God as He was saying, "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." This is the message Jesus consistently was teaching and preaching: calling on sinners to repent, urging them to believe and to accept and embrace the gospel. 

Jesus was consistent in His message. He did not waver based on the crowd. His message did not change based on the response of the crowd. Whether He was received or rejected, He preached for people to repent and to believe. Whether He received praise or persecution, whether He received a coronation or a crucifixion, His message was consistent that sinners are to believe. 

Calling

And with that consistency, Jesus has just been teaching, and that brings us to verse 27, and you can write down the word "calling." We hear about the calling in verse 27. It says, "After this" – after He was teaching – "He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth." 

Who is Levi? Levi is Matthew, better known to us as Matthew. It wasn't uncommon in that day for people to have two names. They would have oftentimes a Roman name and a Jewish name or sometimes a Greek name. Also at times, Jesus would give them a new name to represent a change that had taken place in them. 

The text tells us this little cue. It's one of these little phrases that we may be tempted to rush by quickly that actually provides a lot of insight for us: "After this He went out and saw." By the way, the term here for "saw" means to look intently. Jesus is looking at Levi and seeing him not just for who he is, but for who he can become. 

"He saw" – He looked intently at – "a tax collector named Levi," – look at this next phrase – "sitting at a tax booth." He was a tax collector. Now that tells us a lot because there's a lot of things we can know from learning history and scholarship from the first century. Tax collectors were despised by their fellow countrymen. They were considered to be crooks, regardless traders. They took money from their fellow countrymen and handed it over to the Gentiles. Because of that, they were barred from going to synagogue. Because of that, they weren't even allowed to testify in a court because they were regarded socially as liars and corrupt people. 

Now we understand from history how the tax system worked. What would happen is Rome, who was in charge of Israel at that time, they would sell out these tax franchises. It was known as tax farming. And what people would do is they would often sell a piece of land to raise money to buy this tax franchise. 

Now that was particularly scandalous to the Jewish people because to sell off a piece of your land was to give away that which God had given to His people. You would collect taxes all year; at the end of the year, you would give to Rome what you were required to give to them. However, as much as you could cheat or swindle your fellow countrymen out of other taxes and rob from them, you could keep the rest. And that's why tax collectors became wealthy and they wanted to be a part of this tax farming system. 

Now there's some things you can understand. One is they had fixed taxes called gabbai. These fixed taxes were set, settled, established taxes. You would pay a poll tax – one for men, one for women. You had what was called a ground tax. You had an income tax. Not a lot of room to cheat the system there. It was pretty set, pretty established. You would collect that money, give that back to Rome. 

But you also had what was known as mokus. This was a different kind of tax. This was a kind of tax that had some leeway. And the tax collectors could impose what they would call a road tax or a market tax. You could tax someone if they were pushing a cart down the road and charge a tax for every wheel on the cart that would use the road. You could charge a tax based on the animals they use. You could give them a purchase tax. You could cheat and extort from them. And this is where the tax collectors made a lot of money, and this is why they were so hated by their fellow countrymen. Additionally, if you could get by with it, you could demand very high taxes, and if they couldn't pay it, what you could do is loan them that money, charge them an exorbitant interest rate, and now you make even more money; and if they don't pay it back, you just send your cronies out to take care of the guy who doesn't pay them back. 

This is why the tax collectors were so hated. It is beyond shocking. If you are reading this story for the first time to understand a bit of first century history, to think that Jesus the Messiah would include someone like this inside His band of disciples. 

We also get another little clue here. It says, "Levi" – Matthew – "was sitting at the tax booth." Well, in that day you would have someone known as the great mokus. This was somebody who was on top of the pyramid scheme. The great mokus would have guys underneath him doing his work, doing his bidding. It was the little mokus they would call them that went, and they were the ones on the ground actually collecting that tax. They were the most hated because they were the men who were actually looking at their fellow countrymen eye-to-eye and demanding money from them and cheating them and stealing from them. 

And we know that Matthew was what we would call a little mokus because it tells us he was sitting at the tax booth. The one in charge wouldn't be there. And this means that Matthew was not only a tax collector, he was the most hated even among the tax collectors. 

Now he was at a good spot. He was at a prime spot in fact. Capernaum was a customs post there in this caravan route between Damascus and the Mediterranean Sea. He's at a prime location which means he likely would have known two guys by the name of James and John who would not have liked him at all. 

It's a bit of a strange way to gather together a group of initial followers. And yet Jesus in verse 27 says, "Follow Me. Follow Me." It seems that Matthew already had some kind of knowledge of who Jesus was, don't know for sure how deep that went. For Jesus to call a tax collector would be just as shocking and as offensive as it was for Him to touch a leper, to heal a leper. 

Jesus continues to do things that the religious establishment don't like. Verse 28, "And leaving everything, he rose and followed Him." As shocking as it would be that Jesus would invite the tax collector to come, "Follow Me," it's just as shocking that the tax collector would just on the spot get up and leave, leave everything to follow Jesus, because fishermen that left Jesus, they left everything behind too, but the fishermen could always go back and take up fishing. You leave the tax franchise, there's no going back. 

He left everything. He left behind a temporary career, and by God's grace would be given salvation. He left behind material possessions, but would gain a spiritual inheritance. He left behind his earthly resources, but would gain heavenly reward. And it says, "He rose and walked. He rose and followed." 

Now that should sound familiar to you because just last week you saw a picture of the miraculous work Christ did with the paralytic, and he says in verse 25, "Immediately he rose before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home." What did the paralytic do? He rose and walked. Exactly what Matthew was doing here at the tax station. What Jesus is doing is He's using the healing of the paralyzed man to be a physical picture of what's going to happen in Matthew's life to denote the spiritual transformation that happens when we leave everything behind to follow Christ. 

Now here's the question for Trinity Bible Church. As you seek to follow Christ, do you have a bunker mindset? Are you going to have a mindset of the only people who we talk to, the only people we associate with, the only people we have any conversation with are people who are already in the family, already talk like us, already know what we know, already are one of us? We have a bunker mindset where we withdraw from the world and it's just us? Are you going to have a worldly mindset where you say, "Let's be so much like the world that the world doesn't know a distinction between them and us and we try to have everything the world has. Sure, we'll still go to church on Sundays, but what we really want is for the world to approve us." Are we going to have a worldly mindset? 

And, God forbid, we wouldn't have a mission mindset where we recognize by God's grace we've been saved out of the world. We're not trying to be like the world. But we are living ambassadors for Christ, and we go to the Matthews, the Levi's of the world and we call them to follow Christ, not with a message that we're trying to make sure the world likes. Jesus was clear on His message, consistent on His message: "Repent and Follow Me. You're a sinner, you must turn from your ways." Christ was not trying to be like the world. But He did come to seek and say that which was lost. 

And that's an important word for churches like Trinity Bible Church. That's an important word for places where I've served the last 24 years at First Baptist in Mustang, Oklahoma, because churches that love the Bible and love Christ and love to serve in the church, we've got to remind ourselves that we don't go back to the world we were called out of to live like the world, but neither do we retreat from the world, because as long as Christ has called us here, we are to be light to the world. 

Celebration

Jesus shows us that. There's a consistency in His teaching. There's a calling He gives to Levi. Third, write down the word "celebration." There's a celebration that takes place in verse 29. It says, "And Levi made Him a great feast in his house." We don't know for sure how much time has gone between his deciding to follow Jesus and having the feast, not much time it appears. He probably had a large house. He had a lot of money. He had made a lot of money as he was cheating and defrauding his own countrymen. 

Verse 29 says, "There was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with them." You can be certain the others was a pretty rough bunch. 

Now why does Matthew, why does he invite the tax collectors? Why does he invite the other outcasts to come to his house? Why are they the ones invited to the party? A really easy answer here: it's the only people who would come. It's the only people he knew. If you were a tax collector, you were so ostracized by your fellow people, they wanted nothing to do with you. So the only people he has to associate with that would come to his house are going to be people in the same category as he was. And so he goes back to the crowd of outcasts and says, "I want you to come to my house and meet Jesus." 

This reminds me of John 4, the woman at the well. She goes to draw water at the heat of the day, in the middle of the day. Nobody did that. You didn't go draw water at the middle of the day because it was incredibly hot, you didn't do that. 

The reason she goes at the middle of the day is because everybody else went when it was cool, and she was an outcast. I mean, nobody would do that. To go draw water at the middle of the day would be like to decide when you live in Dallas, "I'm going to mow my lawn at 2:00 p.m. in July." You don't do that. You don't mow your lawn at 2:00 p.m. in July in Dallas, you pay someone to mow it for you at 9:00 a.m., that's how you do it. 

The lady in John 4 went in the middle of the day because she was the outcast and everyone in town talked about her. And if she would have shown up in the cool of the day, it wouldn't have been people talking behind her back, it would have been people talking about her looking down on her to her face. 

So as the outcast, she goes in the heat of the day. And when she meets Jesus and encounters living water, what does she do? She goes back into her town and she says, "Come meet a man." She goes back to her town and says, "You've got to come meet this man". 

And this is what Matthew is doing. I mean, the religious leaders, they're not coming to his house. The elite of the day, they're not accepting the invitation. And so Matthew just goes to the only people who would respond anyway, and his message to his people is the same thing the lady's was in John 4, "You've got to come meet this man." 

Complaint

The people at the house for the dinner, the table would have been arranged in a U-shaped fashion. It's how their tables would have been, low to the ground, maybe about a foot off the ground. They'd have reclined back on their left elbow underneath a cushion, eating with their right hand. And they had a celebration, which leads us to verse 30, and I want you to write down the word "complaint." 

Look at verse 30: "And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at His disciples saying, 'Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?'" Complainers, they'll always be there, won't they? They're always there. 

There's always going to be people sitting on the sideline watching you do what you do, complaining about how you do it. That's what the religious leaders are doing. They're not the ones sharing the gospel, they're not the one believing in Jesus, they're not the one going to call spiritually dead people to life, they're just sitting on the side. 

They're at the house, they've been tipped off there's a party going on. They weren't invited in. They wouldn't have gone anyway, they would have been considered unclean. They'd have never gone inside his house. But they're outside, leering over the bushes, seeing who's there. "Why is a rabbi," in their mind, "going inside that house? What is Jesus doing?" And they grumble. 

There's always going to be complainers. Even inside a church, there's always going to be people who sit on the sidelines, don't get their hands dirty. They're just going to sit back and say, "Why are you doing it that way? I know a better way. I won't do it, but I know a better way," watching you clean and say, "You missed a spot. Don't give me the rag, but I could have done better." 

Let me just tell you, brothers and sisters, don't get discouraged by the complainers, they're going to always be there. You stay focused on what God's called you to do. Don't let the complaints from the sidelines keep you from executing what God's called you to do. 

Who is it complaining? It's the Pharisees and their scribes. The scribes were the men who copied the law, interpreted the law, studied the law. They were the scholars. The Pharisees was a group that began and organized about two centuries before the birth of Jesus. The very name Pharisees means the separated ones. They thought that their salvation, they thought their security was in the fact that they were different. They were not allowing any Greek culture to come into their Jewish traditions. 

They weren't priests, they were lay people. And the Pharisees and their scribes are outraged at what Jesus is doing. In fact, verse 30 says, "They grumbled. They grumbled." That's something that happens all throughout the Scripture. 

Our church in Mustang, we're reading through the Bible in a year with a specific reading plan. And so I had this idea that what would be a really fun thing to do would be every day this year to do a 15-minute teaching video of what we're reading that day. I had no idea what I was committing myself to do. If I'd have had any – I'm glad I didn't know, I wouldn't have done it, so I'm glad I didn't know. 

Just last night, we had a baby shower for my oldest son and his wife, and we had family in town, and then we drove down here. And so we got to the hotel late last night, and I was telling Marcy, "I didn't do the teaching video for today's reading, I need to get that done." And I'm literally just laying there thinking," I wonder if anyone would even care or notice if I just skipped it." And I checked my email. A lady I don't even know sent me an email, a couple of them actually, and one of them said, "I love to follow your daily teaching videos. Where is today's?" And so I said, "I'd better get this done." 

And as I was thinking, I was just reminiscing how often in the Old Testament people who are supposed to be followers of God were known for their complaining, their grumbling. In fact, just listen to Numbers 14:26. We just read this a couple of months ago in our read through the Bible plan at our church. 

"The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying," – see if you can figure out what the Lord is frustrated with – 'How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel which they grumble against Me.'" You kind of get the idea that grumbling is He's had enough? 

And this isn't anything new. This is what people always love to do: grumble, Just complain. People who aren't busy serving quickly become grumblers. The book of Proverbs calls them whisperers. You have any whisperers in your life? Just always have a comment, always something they don't like, always something that they could do better, that they know more about. They're whispering, they're grumbling. 

Clarity

Well, what's striking to me in reading this, that my mind's going back to how much of the Old Testament the people of God were doing the exact same thing: grumbling and complaining. The complainers are always going to be there. And they're grumbling at His disciples. And that complaint leads to a fifth word I want you to write down, and that's the word "clarity." 

I want you to notice that Jesus bookends this episode, starts with the consistency of His message calling people to repent, and the clarity of His mission. Verse 31 says, "Jesus answered them," – here's the answer to the complaint – 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but it's those who are sick.'" Jesus likens His mission to a doctor who is called to care for the sick. 

Now, recognize that a good doctor has to be around sick people. I mean, just imagine if you were sick and you called the doctor and you called Dr. Johnson's office and the receptionist said, "Hello, how can I help you?" and you said, "I'd like to make an appointment to see Dr. Johnson tomorrow," and they said, "Sure. Let me ask you one question. Do you happen to be ill?" and you said, "Yes," and they said, "I'm sorry, he doesn't see any ill patients." You would say, "I thought he was a doctor." 

If the doctor has a bunker mentality and he retreats and withdraws from everyone who is ill, he ceases to be a doctor. At the same time, if the doctor does his job and sees the sick patient and you go to see Dr. Johnson and Dr. Johnson says, "What are you here for?" and you say, "I have a horrible cough and it's making everyone I'm around sick," if Dr. Johnson says, "Well here, cough right in my face, I'd like to get what you have," well he's not going to make it very long either, is he? That would be a worldly and assimilation mentality. 

Why does Jesus use this metaphor? Well, because it makes perfect sense. The doctor can't retreat from the sick people, but neither is the doctor trying to be just like the sick person. The doctor is around the sick person not because he wants what the sick person has, but because he has what the sick person needs. And that's the difference between a person and a church that lives on mission and one that misses it. 

We don't withdraw from the world, we're to go into the world as ambassadors for Christ. But we're not trying to pick up what they have, we've been saved from that, but we do have what they need. And so, Jesus says, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, it's those who are sick." 

And then He says in verse 31, "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." "Righteous" here, used in the sense of those who consider themselves to be righteous, have a sense of self-righteousness. In fact, in the read through the Bible video I had to record my hotel last night, it was from Romans 3 – we're in the New Testament now. Romans 3:10 says, "As it is written, 'None is righteous, no, not one. 

But what does Jesus mean when He says, "I have not come to call the righteous"? He's saying, "Those who are filled with their own self-righteousness who think they don't need any help, they're not the ones responding to My call. I've come to call sinners to repentance." 

Conclusion

If you've come in this church today and your mindset is that because you came to church, you think that God owes you something, and because you read your Bible, you think you've earned your standing as God's child, and if you think the fact that you live better than your neighbor, and you're more noble and moral than your coworker, and you're putting all your confidence in yourself and what you do in your achievement, you're going to be filled with a sense of self-righteousness and you're not going to care for the gospel because you think you don't need it. 

But, if you come in here today and you say to yourself, "I know I'm sick. I've tried what the world has, it didn't satisfy. I've tried to alleviate my own guilt, I can't do it," Jesus has a great word for you today. He came to seek that which is lost, and He's a physician that came to heal the sick. 

For some, they've tried everything. Maybe you can relate to this. There's some people who, they get sick, they don't want to go to the doctor. They've tried everything, they're going to get over it, they're going to beat it on their own. They can't get better, and so they've tried some home remedies. Maybe you have even these little family legends that get passed down of how you treat different things. I'll tell you, at my house – nobody under 50 will even know what I'm talking about. If you're my age or over, you will. 

My grandmother had this bottle, it was called Campho Phenique. Anybody heard of that? All of you who are 50 and over raising your hands, of course. Campho Phenique: I don't know what Campho Phenique is I don't know what it does, I don't know what it's supposed to do. I don't know if they've even made a bottle of it in 50 years, I have no idea. 

I can tell you that growing up, when I would go to stay at my grandmother's house, her cure for everything was Campho Phenique. "Grandma, I've got it cold." "Here's some Campho Phenique." "Grandma, I just cut off my hand playing." "Here, put some Campho Phenique on it, you'll be fine." 

Now the miraculous thing is, my grandmother used it for everything, on everything, for everyone, and I'm telling you, my whole life growing up for 20 years, it was the same bottle of Campho Phenique for 20 years. It was like Old Testament miraculous stuff, it just – the oil kept reproducing. I don't know how she did it. 

Well, maybe that's you. Maybe you've tried your own way. Maybe you've tried every way that someone else has told you. Maybe you've tried all these different paths that are out there. But sometimes physically, even the one who doesn't want to go to the doctor – thinks they can get over it themselves, thinks they can beat it, tried every little weird thing out there – at some point, if it doesn't go away, even that person has to break down and go to the physician and say, "I'm sick. I need help." 

Friends, here's the good news of the gospel. Jesus came for those who are sick. Now the truth is, if we want to understand the fullness of the New Testament's teaching on what it means to be spiritually sick, in the metaphor, He uses it for a reason, the purpose of the doctor. But theologically, we could even say of someone who's not a believer, they're not just sick, in Ephesians 2, they're actually dead. So, you need somebody not only who can cure sickness, it's worse than that. If you're an unbeliever, you literally need someone who can raise the dead. 

I've got good news. There's one who can, and there's one who does. And there's one that still is taking spiritually dead people, and by grace, calling them to life, from darkness to light. Now if you've been saved, born again, delivered from spiritual death, by all means, don't run back and live like a dead person. And at the same time, don't forget that all around you are spiritually dead people in need of life-giving grace. 

A bunker mentality is not what we've been called to live. A worldly mentality of being like the world is not going to do anything. We are to be like Christ, consistent in our message, and with clarity, remembering our mission. 

It's interesting, Levi's name, that name, that word means "attached," and yet he can never live up to that name because as a tax collector, he was cut off from his own people. But in grace, Jesus brings him in; and in grace, He can do the same thing for you today. 

You've not met a more unlikely follower of Jesus than Levi. And I want you to take away friends today, that that person in your family that you've been burdened for, that you've been praying for their salvation and you've been tempted to give up on them because they would just never, ever believe: keep praying for them, keep sharing with them, keep living your grace-transformed life in front of them. That co-worker, that friend of yours at school, that neighbor who you say, "They are far too gone for Christ to ever save them," if He saves Levi, you don't get to decide who's too far gone to follow Jesus. You keep taking the news of the great physician to those who need it. 

And here in this feast that's going on, I'm reminded that there will be another meal one day, a meal in glory known in Scripture as the marriage supper of the Lamb, where the redeemed, the people of God gathered around the table with our host, our King, Jesus. And at that meal, there will be no grumbling, no complaining, because the old things have passed away, and those gathered at that meal are the bride of Christ, the dead who have been brought to life, the sick who have been made well. And no one at the marriage supper of the Lamb is going to look in a mirror and say, "Look at me." 

We'll only have the light of the Lamb, and we will say, "I was sick, and He made me well. I was dead, and He brought me to life." And we'll look around at those at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and rather than saying, "I can't believe he made it; I can't believe she's here," we'll have one thought: "Only by grace am I welcome at this table," and the grumbling will go away. And as the hymn writer said, "We will be lost in wonder, love, and praise." 

Until that day, go and tell the sick there is a great physician named Jesus who still seeks and saves the lost. Live on mission for the glory of Christ. 

[Prayer] Lord, we do thank You for Your word. I pray that it would be accompanied now by the power of the Holy Spirit to help us to believe, to understand, and to obey. I pray that we would take these words we have considered and studied today and that they would be for us a sense of clarity for a life and the purpose for which we live. 

I pray for those who may not know Christ is saved that even today in hearing the gospel that they would be aware that they are a sinner without any hope. But Christ, rich in mercy, saves the lost. May they repent, turning from their sin, calling upon the name of Jesus, and even this day find salvation. May they rise and follow after Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that in His name and for the sake of His glory. Amen. [End] 

Trinity Bible Church, it is an honor anytime I'm privileged to be here with you. I love this church. I'm thankful for the ministry of this church. I pray for this church often, and I celebrate with you what God is doing among you. I pray this week you would go forth from this place and take the message of the Great Physician's gospel to those who are sick and in need to hear it. God bless you.