Well, as I said, this morning we break from the series in Exodus. We'll return to that tonight. And since we are anticipating new elders and deacons and thinking about who should be set apart to serve in the Escondido URC, we're going to be looking at 1 Timothy 3. So I invite you to turn to 1 Timothy 3 this morning. It's such an important subject. I realize that if you're a visitor this morning, It's a little more in-house of a sermon, but still so important for us to understand, if you are a visitor, how the church functions, its tasks, and what the Lord put in place. We've already considered the vital importance of this for your own spiritual well-being and the well-being of your children. And so this is one of the most important subjects that we can address at this time for those called to serve. 1 Timothy 3, I'll read through verse 13 this morning. The 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. Deacons, likewise, must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience and let them also be tested first. Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well, 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word this morning. This morning we come to a subject that is of great importance to our Lord. We're approaching a time, as I said, in the life of the church when we will be choosing new men for leadership. Elections for office bearers of elders and deacons are soon to be in front of us. And since I've never addressed the God-inspired qualifications for these offices, I thought it would be a good moment in the life of the church to pause and consider these things now that we've concluded our study in 1 Corinthians. We're only looking at here two chapters in this sort of brief series, chapters three and some of chapter four. But the goal that I have in this is simply to reorient us to what God considers to be absolutely vital to the spirituality and the strength of his body the church seeing the gospel advance salvation being freely given to you and your children comes through this ministry comes through the ministry of the gospel it's a very important subject then to consider why it matters that we give serious consideration to the biblical qualifications for the office of elder and deacon is because God told us in our series in Corinthians that it pleased him through the foolishness of preaching, through the ministry of the gospel, to save those who believe. And we have seen a sort of wholesale lack of confidence in that in our day, and this is something that we have to recover. Enter men who are not qualified or not called by God. You'll wreck the spirituality of the church. It's a serious thing. My goal this morning then is really simple. I want to sort of raise out of the roof your view of the office and to appreciate what God has put in place for your own spiritual well-being and understand how important you are to the whole thing, the process. To do that, we're looking at just one verse. And I don't typically do that, but it's a meaty verse. So we're going to look at one verse together this morning that doesn't necessarily mean it's a shorter sermon by the way. If you were to look at the first verse there in 1st Timothy chapter 3 you'll notice there are numerous things that are said in that little verse and emphasizing here the calling of God. You'll notice it and if you could break it down I'm breaking it down this morning as this weighty calling that God has given. You'll notice that it's and that it's a good calling, good work. The weightiness of the calling, the desire of the calling, and the emphasis on it being a good calling from God, that'll give us a sort of good introduction to this subject so that next time we'll look at the qualifications necessary to serve in each of these offices. Just to begin briefly, the context to this is fascinating, but really important to understand why the Apostle Paul is doing what he is doing and saying what he is saying to his young protege, Timothy. The most received tradition about these pastoral epistles, the first and second pastoral epistles here to Timothy, is that Paul wrote them. They were given on his fourth missionary journey. He is writing these epistles to young Timothy. Paul had counseled Timothy on many of his journeys. And remember last week he had even said at the end of Corinthians that he was sending Timothy to Corinth to minister to them there. At this particular moment in time, Paul had just left Timothy in Ephesus. That's the context into which these pastoral epistles come to us, and that's important because the Ephesian church had been established by Paul, founded, if you will, on his third missionary journey. he spent three years there, remember? You know the well-known passage in Acts 20 that really burdened the apostle before he moved on that he was pleading with the leadership about certain things. He was worked up about certain things that he saw coming, that he knew were going to happen in the life of the church. And so he pleaded with the Ephesian elders. Remember that? Pay careful attention to yourselves, to yourselves and all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, which is the real, I think, shock of that passage, they're not just coming from the outside that they're rising up from the body men will rise up speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after themselves therefore you be alert he says to them remembering that for three years i did not cease night or day to admonish every one of you with tears you feel the weight of that tears they're going to lead some of the sheep here astray and leaders need to know what they're fighting for they don't always understand that that proved to be true by the way the church in ephesus soon faced a terrible and tragic assault you want to know how bad it got just open up revelation chapter two the church had left its first love and there were major problems in the midst of this though where we are this morning paul had left timothy in ephesus to deal with these very serious problems isn't it something that so soon after the apostle could leave these very things that he said would happened started happening so soon so overtly from within the church paul is in macedonia and he writes this epistle to timothy on how to clean up the mess already of the reports that he's hearing and what is going on there were all sorts of problem if you were just to kind of survey the book you see what he's dealing with in the book there were all sorts of problems of people getting now into the positions of leadership that weren't qualified. And so Paul provides a list here of qualifications that would be good and helpful to the church in discerning men that are called by God to this office. But the epistles to Timothy, he's going after here things that he knew about were going on in Ephesus. We know by looking at what Paul exposes right out of the gates in 1 Timothy 1, he's exposing, and you'll notice this in 2 Timothy, he's exposing abuses with the law. The law was being used incorrectly. And when the law was used incorrectly, when it was being used to put people back under it for condemnation, you have all sorts of things that could be done with the law to use it incorrectly. It affects the gospel. And Paul had to explain to them how the law functions in the life of the church. It exposes evildoing. And it corrects. It doesn't correct. It exposes. And then the gospel, he would go on to say, is how we're delivered from those patterns of death that we choose. He explains some of that in the early chapters. He then went on to mention by name people. We would be so uncomfortable with that today, by the way. Hymenaeus and Alexander. You imagine if we started doing that? Paul was polemical. Paul exposed air. It's 1 Corinthians 16. He was a man. He had backbone. They do these things. I delivered them over to Satan so that they would stop that. The weight of this really shines in the pastoral epistles. I encourage you to go back and read some of this today. If you're sitting around, read the pastoral epistles. You get a really good understanding of ministry. False teachers and women were getting into positions of authority in the church. And in chapter 2, he goes back to creation and says that is absolutely unacceptable. A woman is not to be a pastor or an elder in these positions of authority or deacon. That is not how God made this situation. That is not what God ordained in the church. And he hit hard on that. In chapter 4, he begins and says, well, the Spirit expressly says that in the latter time some will, the Spirit expressly says, that in the latter time some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. That is so weighty, isn't it? Refusing to marry, abstaining from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who know the truth. You could go through this. You could look at all the things that Paul wrote about and then to provide what the whole approach of ministry was to be to counter all of this. How do you deal with the church falling apart? How do you deal with a church that is sinking? That's really the question. People not even thinking through this problem or the solutions to the problem. Well, packed in the middle of the book are qualifications. for the positions of leadership for somebody to serve and the first thing that we see stress there is the weightiness of this calling as we come to chapter three and the introduction now to the qualifications the first thing we notice is that there is a a phrase that paul employs that paul uses to introduce the weightiness of this great subject this is a faithful saying this saying is trustworthy. Throughout the pastoral epistles, he says that five times. And when the apostle chose to use this, given by inspiration of God, it was the Spirit himself telling the church that they had come to something that was vitally important for the life of the church that they needed to understand and paul wanted to really emphasize how important these faithful sayings the church came to understand in the early church were so important to the functions and tasks of the church were so important to the ministry of the gospel and the spirituality of the church that they would save them when they gathered together because they could be lost so easy paul was affirming what he knew to be important and that he knew people didn't tend to take and think were very important. One pastor said these became sort of watchwords in the early church. Watchwords. Let me just give you a sense for a moment of a few of the faithful sayings so that you see what Paul's doing here. This is 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a faithful saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm the worst that's a big one don't you think for the gospel message what is more important to affirm that christ came into the world to save sinners and that anyone who understands their sin is going to say right here's number one right second one this is actually the third one first timothy 4 9 for while bodily training is of some value godliness is a value in every way As it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. Look at the effects of godliness. You need to maintain how important godliness and how far-reaching its consequences are. Here's another. Here's a trustworthy saying. If we died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. All that simply saying is, look at the blessings of being in union with Jesus. You have to affirm this constantly. Sandwiched in all of that is this. This is a faithful saying. If a man desires the position of overseer, he desires a good work. That makes it in. I don't know that I would choose that. This is a correct and right saying you should constantly affirm. This is something you should say. This is a maxim you should repeat. This is something that needs to be affirmed constantly. If I asked you today, what would be your faithful sayings? I think I'd be scared to go around and ask, by the way. If you could pick, what are your faithful sayings for the church? If I were to ask people, what is of extreme importance to you for the Escondido United Reformed Church. What would fit in there? What would you give? I think today, people would give things like, this is a faithful saying, if I feel good after church, if the music was hot, this is a faithful saying, if the worship was exciting, our programs are great, we're going to retain a lot of people. This is a faithful saying, if we didn't require so much, if we lowered the bar, if we weren't so dogmatic, if we were less offensive, we would win people. That's a faithful saying. None of that is Paul. None of that sounds remotely close to Paul. At the top of the list, Paul says this is a faithful saying to express the high calling of an overseer, to express how wonderful it is to desire the position of being an overseer. Oftentimes, the positions of elder and overseer are used interchangeably. Some of the old translations you know use the word bishop, and that's confusing because of the later developments and what we would even think today of Episcopalians and those bishops that we see in all of the fine robes. The word simply means overseer. The same thing that would overlap in different facets, but the importance of describing what an elder does, what a pastor does. We're looking at positions that exercise oversight, leadership in the life of the church, instruction to the care of the body of Christ. Paul says, it's faithful for you to affirm this weighty calling from God. Let me tell you why, he says. Paul will then go on and explain later in chapter 4 why. Let's explore that just for a moment. Why? Isn't it something that God chooses men to rule us, help us? We affirm this in our Heidelberg in the fifth commandment, which I've always thought is such a beautiful summary to the fifth commandment when it says that we should be patient with our leadership. For God, through them, God chooses to rule us. What we find in the New Testament is that the spirituality of the people is directly tied to those who minister to them. You say, what do you mean by that? I mean, I'm on my own, aren't I? We're Southern Californians. We go here, we go there. We do our own thing, right? Nope. Where you attend church is a life and death choice. Listen to what Paul told Timothy later. Be diligent in these matters. Give yourself wholly to them so that everyone may see your progress. Pastor, watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them because if you do, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. What a verse. The spirituality of the people, of the pastors and the leaders and the elders and the deacons has a direct tie to the spirituality of the people, the growth of the congregation, the pathway that they're on. You know this. I mean, this isn't, we know this about leadership in general. It amazes me how many grandparents or parents will come up to me and say, you know, I can't understand why my friend or my child could attend a church that has no reverence for God and teaches false things. And they seem completely content in it. I don't understand that. There's nothing reverent. There's no conviction. The worship is a show. At one time, I thought they had conviction, but now they just tolerate it all and sit there and are okay with it. It seems like they don't even care anymore. I'll tell you what's happened. They played with fire and they became like those who ministered to them. They played with fire and they became like those who ministered to them. this was the old testament principle and it shall be as with the people so with the priests isaiah 24 what we looked at or the prophets prophesy lies and the priests rule by their own authority and lo and behold my people love it anyone who has spent time in the old testament knows it's a giant uh test case a giant case study if you will of what happens when leadership goes corrupt and a nation runs into idolatry. There was no more conviction for truth. I just heard the other day about a large reformed denomination, I won't say names, that at their synod they said 85% of their churches are in decline. One of their leaders said later on that one of the reasons, three of the reasons for that were, number one, not enough attention given to the ordination of women. Number two, too much support for Christian education. Number three, too much emphasis on the evening service. Number one, compromise. Number two, compromise. Number three, compromise. You understand why Paul is saying here with elders and deacons that if someone doesn't, the principle of if you don't manage your own house well, how is he going to do that in the church? They're going to impose their compromise on the church itself. I've always said that a pastor takes on the personality. A congregation will often take on, in some ways, a congregation. I'm speaking in a broad stroke here. The personality of the pastor. That's scary, by the way. He's not saying that leadership, and I'm not saying leadership. It's the leadership that saves you. but that the leadership's commitment to chapter 4, doctrine and life, has a direct connection to the progress and deliverance of the people. The leadership's commitment to doctrine and life has a direct connection to the progress and deliverance of God's people. And when you have uncommitted leaders, a low standard of leadership, if the standard of who you put in office does not maintain the highest possible bar, what do you think will be the consequence? Well, we're going through this right now in the political realm. We are being taught in this country that character no longer matters in who we put in office. Character is out the door. Paul is all about character. You know a society is bankrupt, a nation is morally bankrupt. If that has happened, look at the leadership. When Christian institutions or schools are falling apart, look at the leadership. When a church is dead, look at the leadership. Convictions are gone. They're not fighting for anything. It's lowest common denominator comfortable American Christianity. People today are so worried because a generation of young people is leaving the church. And whose fault is that? I don't know if people have put this together. If leadership doesn't value worship, if the leadership doesn't value the church, why in the world do you expect the next generation to do so? If leadership doesn't set the highest possible example, what do you expect from the people? That is why it's so important that anyone who serves in office should greatly value worshiping God. Leading in wherever they are called and demonstrating a good example. I interned at a church years ago where the evening service had 20 people that came back. And guess who led the exodus out? There were no elders or deacons there. The deacons only showed up to take the offering. I'm trying to imagine the Old Testament priests saying why God's people, Old Testament priests staying home and drinking and watching the ball game, why God's people are worshiping. I'm trying to imagine that scenario. It kills the spirituality of the church. How could one be committed to serving God's people who don't care to oversee their very worship? You don't do this in the working world, of course. No, no, no. If you have a business and you want someone to build your house and you have two men sitting in front of you and one says, I can be there half the time, and they make excuse after excuse after excuse and are not very committed to the project, are you going to ask him to build your house? Of course not. You want a guy who's going to give 110%. But the church always gets the backseat, of course. Church always gets the backseat. Church gets run right over with a steamroller. I don't understand it. God told you in his word, He saves you and your children through the ministry of the gospel. Is it possible that we're not seeing a lot of salvation today because there isn't much ministry of the gospel? That's why I'm passionate about it. I'm passionate about it because I want that for all of you and your children. I'm not trying to create a burden on you as a pastor. I want you to be strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. People wonder what's wrong with the church. Why so little growth? Why so little understanding? Why so little holiness? Why our church is the way that it is? Why it's full of divisions and discord? Why people aren't very committed to the faith? I can tell you why. It's the people leading them. The most important thing you do, one of the most important things you do as a church is prayerfully select godly men who meet what God inspired as qualifications for the office and how right it is to constantly affirm that. How right it is to constantly have to say that because we don't hardly open up 1 Timothy 3. And that leads me to the second point is this. It's a desired calling. This is a faithful saying. If anyone desires the office, Paul chose a word that means to exert all sorts of reaching out energy for it. There's an inward desire for this. Now that's something I think we should take seriously. If a man is set apart by God to be a leader, Christ himself has equipped him. Christ himself has given gifts. That's one of his blessings to the church. As he is seated in heaven and ruling his church, he has poured out gifts from heaven upon his body. And he equips men for service in this capacity. Here's what Paul's saying. When God equips, God puts a desire there. Now, we have to remember in the first century, not just anyone ran into this, by the way. There was genuine fear in the first century serving, and how much emphasis in these pastoral epistles is given to Timothy being timid because of fear of persecution. No one ran into the office. So, sincere believers, men in whom God had put this desire in, And notice it's emphasized men here. I'm not spending a lot of time on that, but if you want to go back and look at chapter 2, it exposes that this office is inappropriate for women, that that's not degrading the women, that's just looking at the roles as God has defined them, that God put men in these positions, and that these men, you'll notice here, when God put this desire, they knew in the first century they could die for this. And Paul wanted people to understand how right it was to desire this if you've been given that desire and gift from God. That's a desire created by the Holy Spirit. That's a desire that he lays upon the hearts of those whom he has given these gifts to. Externally, that is recognized by the church. Internally, that's something that the Lord raises up in you, a desire. So Paul realizes this is a calling from God upon the life and the one who's called can do no other. I think of Jeremiah who went into the ministry and at one point it got so hard for Jeremiah he wanted to quit. And everything went against Jeremiah. And do you know what chapter 20 said? He made a resolution in his mind and as soon as before the resolution was over he already had to renege on it. He couldn't do it. I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name. But his word is in my heart like a fire. A fire shut up in my bones. I'm weary of holding it back. Indeed, I cannot. Notice what the desire was for. The truth. The word to go out. That's why all these offices exist, by the way. The office of elders to protect so that the pulpit ministry and prayer is given to go out. The office of deacon is given not just to be money counters, but to free up elders for the word and prayer. Oh, there's got to be a love for God's truth to do this. If it's not there, you'll never minister to the people properly. So what word do I use to describe what needs to be with this desire? I know it's an abused word, but it's still a good word and it's passion. Someone who has a passion for this is going to devote themselves to it. To love the people. To invest themselves in the shepherding of the flock of God which he, notice the emphasis, purchased with the blood of Christ. What is one of the worst scenarios? It's men put into this who have no passion for the Lord and His work. There's two things that need to be understood here. As a congregation and elders and deacons, we have to encourage suitable men to fill this position. But if one is called, that desire is going to be there. It should be a red flag to us. And there's nothing wrong with this. You have to say this. If we go to someone and they have no desire, you don't beat them up. You don't bring them and beat them up. That's so wrong in this. We're not God. Listen, what is the consequence of doing that? It's this. Listen to the words of Horatius Bonar. The whole soul is not poured into the duty, and hence it wears too often the repulsive air of routine and form. We do not speak and act like men with earnest. Our words are feeble, even when sound and true. Our looks are careless, even when our words are weighty and our tones betray the apathy which both words and looks disguise. Love is wanting, deep love. Love strong as death. Love such as made Jeremiah weep in the secret places for the pride of Israel. And Paul speaks even of weeping for the enemies of the cross of Christ. In preaching and visiting and counseling and reproving, what formality, what coldness, and how little tenderness and affection. This is why it's wrong to put in men to the office who have no passion or desire for it. Here's where I believe we need to be challenged a bit. A little in-house for a moment. Every time we have an election, there's a real challenge to get men to serve here. I try to think through why that is. I guess it didn't used to be like that. I hear this place used to be flooded with men who wanted to serve. What happened? Different times, are we all so busy? Sometimes the attitude is, who can we get just to fill the office? And in our tradition, we are so committed to having double the number to present to the congregation. We have got to meet double the number to present to the congregation. That trumps the requirements at times. Here's what I've seen happen in Reformed churches. I don't just slap everyone else. I look at me, I look at us. Here's what happens. The attitude toward the office often becomes one of heavy burden, resulting in a bunch of cycles that people have to go through just to get through. The office is viewed as a list of requirements legally, duties that have to be done. Who can manage all of that? I agree. I fully agree. A spirit and attitude of kind of forced service sometimes comes out. It's all about rules. It's all about keeping orders. It's all about making sure the orders are kept and people coming in are so intimidated by this. In this model, you could create a council serving of men who don't have the qualifications. Just doing it because they feel forced or compelled. I just had a pastor this week tell me that one of his elders said in front of everyone at his last meeting, I have 11 meetings left, I'm counting it down. Is that what Paul's after? Is that what the Lord's after? It's an unbiblical mentality that says, let's rotate men in and out of this just to fill the position. If they say no, we're going to push them in it. Kind of like a society gives jury duty calls. Who wants to go do that? Well, call's up. Let's go. Does that sound like fire or passion? You know, years ago, I'm not promoting what I'm about to say, but I'm making a point with it. Years ago, they used to all smoke cigars in these rooms. you would hear a cloud of smoke come out. Now, I'm not advocating that. I understand there's health concerns. But there was a simplicity in the office. There was a joy in the service. It seems that we've lost a joy and delight in doing this. And we've forgotten why we're doing it. Love for the people. What's been created? It's like pulling teeth to get people. Well, then what is the view of the office? That's the question that has to be answered. What is the view of the office? Burdensome, strict, a bunch of rules. I say pull off the reins then. Let them run. Cultivate simplicity in this. It's a beautiful thing. I'm not for all the clapping and dancing and worship, but there was something beautiful that happened the other day. When those faces turned around and you saw them for the first time, It was spontaneous joy that drove that, not entertainment. And sometimes I wonder if we have like a noose around our neck. Do we open up 1 Timothy prayerfully asking about desire to serve and the qualifications for the office? Patrick Fairbairn once said, the seeking here intended must be of the proper kind. Some guys want to get in and fix everything. That's not it. Not the promoting of carnal ambition, but the aspiration of a heart which has itself experienced. Listen to this. The aspiration of a heart that has itself experienced the grace of God and which longs to see others coming to participate in the heavenly gift. You're looking for a man who will devote himself to the work. And that's already showing itself in the life of the church. If somebody's not doing anything, they should not be put up. I want to say one more thing and we'll close. Shortly, the man who desires this desires a good work. That is so wonderful God inspired that, isn't it? A good work you could do for the Lord. You want to do a good work for the Lord? Timothy was known as Timid Timothy. You know why? Because he was easy to disengage. When I say good work, it's also hard work. There's no doubt it's not easy. But Paul said all over, give yourself to this. Stir up the gift in you, Timothy. We got to stir up the gift in our brothers. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. Why are you doing this? He says, because he's the savior of all men. Remember, Paul said to Timothy, Jesus Christ was raised according to my gospel, and I'm suffering for that, even to the point of going to prison and being put in chains. But God's word's not chained. Isn't that wonderful for today? God's word's not chained. Why are you doing all this? Then he said, I'm doing all this. Paul said, you're doing all this, Timothy, for the sake of the elect. Why? That they may obtain salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. I'm doing this, you're doing this for their salvation. What a good work you can do. That's why this office needs to be filled with men who want to see people saved, who are aiming for the highest goal, have so much confidence in God's Word, they know that in a culture that's absolutely casting it down, it can't be chained. They can't chain God's Word. That's the fire He wants. I say this, no one's sufficient in themselves. I look at this and tremble preaching this this morning, and that's why I confess myself of my own weaknesses, my own failures, my own sometimes very selfish pursuits. But that doesn't remove us because we're sinners from the calling. We are the chief of sinners who serve a risen Christ who's covered us. And so our sufficiency is in Him. If it was this important to the early church to confess this and say this, shouldn't it be to us? I hope this motivates you to prayerfully consider for you and do it for your children. Who should serve you? Who has a fire under their belly to serve? and if there be any who have this desire you get to do a good work for your king did you notice that the great blessing is for the deacons in verse 13 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 I can't help but think I knew we know the Lord would put that there because he knew that the deaconate would be viewed as sort of the wagging tail not as important shepherds shepherd the flock of God I close with this which is among you serving as overseers not by compulsion but willingly not for dishonest gain but eagerly not as being lords over those entrusted to you but being examples to the flock and when the chief shepherd appears you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away there was a lot in one verse let's pray together Gracious Heavenly Father, we're so grateful to you for the ministry of the church and confess our slothfulness and that we have been somewhat careless in this whole process to hold the bar very high. And we pray that it would be held high. Also understanding that all sufficiency, all strength, all help comes from you and we can't do a thing apart from you as you said, Lord Jesus. Build conviction strong here And may your people be edified and nourished in the words of the gospel and the good doctrine which they are taught, that they would be saved, them and their children. And protect your servants. Protect their life. Protect their doctrine. That that example we would show forth, the good Savior in his ministry of mercy and in his ministry of the word to a lost and dying world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.