A Heritage of Unified Sacrifice

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

This morning, as we open up to the Word, I would like to...I would like for you to just do something in your worship guide for me. If you can find a pen or if you have a pen on you, I would like for you to take your worship guide, and I want you to write something down. I want you to name one person who has invested in your spiritual journey. Just write down one name. One name. I got this slide up here. Yeah, no, I don't. Okay.

Name one person who has invested in your spiritual journey. Consider their faces, their actions, how do they invest, where do they go? I want you to take a moment to write their name, and then next to their name or under their name, I want you to write one thing they did. I'm not asking you to summarize everything they did for you, But just write one thing they did to invest in you. Just write that one thing down. And a quick note to slides. This will be our only slide. Just so you know that, okay.

We normally have the verses on slides, but today we do not. So I would encourage you to either power the Bible up on your phone or get a Bible that is around you in a seat. We're going to be in Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to be going verses seven through 17 today. Hebrews 13, seven through 17. I'm going to take a minute for you to get there. The reason that we did that exercise today, the reason I wanted you to begin thinking about people that have invested in you in the past is because that's similar to what verse seven is talking about in Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13, seven says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you, the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. This is particularly in the past tense. In other words, this verse is saying, remember your leaders or consider your own spiritual heritage. Consider your own heritage.

Who are the people that invested in you previously in the past? Consider your own heritage. The last few weeks, we've been looking at the heritage of Jesus' disciples, and we've been looking at how this is a collection of things that are handed down, essential things that are handed down to us. We've talked about this idea of a heritage of people that followed Jesus, what that looks like. We've explored three so far, starting in Hebrews 12:1 and moving to where we are now. We've talked about a life of disciplined endurance. We've talked about a life of reverent obedience. And last week we talked about a life of a loving community, of a church family that gives generously to one another and that also guards one another's weak spots. We're on that wall for each other, with each other. we are protecting one another. This is what we see in Hebrews chapter 13,

verses one through six, this idea of a loving community that gives generously and that guards fiercely for each other. Today, we are gonna look at another essential hand-me-down, and we are gonna begin with our past leaders. And we're gonna continue in verse seven, we're gonna kinda look at that again. It says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you, the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. And so it really pushes the Hebrew church here, the church in Hebrews, to ask, okay, these people that spiritually invested in you, what did their lives look like? How did their lives end, right? How did they turn out? Maybe they're not dead, but I mean, how did they turn out? Did they begin to walk in blessing? Did you see kind of the Lord bless them? Maybe they didn't get whatever they wanted, that's not what I mean, but did they grow

in the faith? Did they become a blessing not just to you, but to many other people? How did their lives turn out? Unfortunately today, when you start talking about spiritual leaders, there are scars on both sides of that conversation. There are people in churches that have been hurt by spiritual leaders. It's not a fun thing for them to think about who has invested in them because they have poor relationships with them. There's some scarring there, but also there's some spiritual leaders who have been hurt by the churches that they serve. And all of that, honestly, is another sermon entirely. Truly it is. But I think it's appropriate to say this is difficult for some people to talk about. If that's part of your story, I'm truly sorry to hear it. I hate that for you. I hate that you've gone through that, because it can be a particularly difficult pain to walk through when spiritual leaders hurt you.

And to be honest, even without some kind of major failing, without some super painful experience, even the best spiritual leaders are going to have warts. They're still going to mess up. They're going to be weird. They're going to say things they shouldn't say. I know maybe you haven't experienced that with me yet, but it's coming, okay? I'm gonna say something you don't like, I'm gonna do something weird, it's gonna happen. I'm not perfect, even though I am a spiritual leader. In fact, that's why I think we have the very next verse, Hebrews 13, eight, where it says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. And to be honest, that verse kind of interjected right in there without, it almost comes out of nowhere. It's like, why are we talking about Jesus Christ at this point? Right? Like, and I think it's as if to say, look, imitate these spiritual leaders, imitate

them so far as they imitate Christ. Right? So we have like a first, first Corinthians 11, one idea here. Um, specifically, specifically what this church is supposed to remember is the message of their leaders. It's how they spoke the word of God to them. That's what they're supposed to remember. And with that in place, okay, so we got spiritual leaders in place, we got their message in place, okay? We're gonna return to spiritual leaders way in verse 17. But right now, we move into a warning in the next two verses. Hebrews chapter 13 verses nine through 10. It goes straight into a warning. So right after, remember your leaders, right after Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, Now we're bam, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted

to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat." Okay, that kind of comes out of nowhere. What in the world are we talking about right now? Have you ever been in a situation, and I'm sure most of us have, where somebody, we're We're with somebody, maybe we're just hanging out with them and they get a call. And they're on their phone and you can't hear the other end. And you only hear one side, but all you're hearing is, oh, is that right? Are you sure? Well let me know when you hear more. Well I don't know if you're like me or my wife, but both of us are just like, okay, like what happened? Okay, tell me. for the other side of that conversation. Like, okay, it's a big deal. What's happening? Because I only got half the, and I know from my half that it's a big deal, but I don't know, I need the rest.

That's a little bit like what we are experiencing here. In other words, we don't have the full layout of this false teaching, right? We don't know what was said on the other end of the phone. All we know is what's said here. So we kind of have to infer some things about this strange, undiverse teaching in order to understand it. So we kind of look for context clues. Okay. So, um, we have to discern kind of what's going on. So we have two clues already. The first clue, okay, uh, has to do with Jesus's unchangeable nature. That, that this false teaching is calling Jesus's unchangeable nature into question. First, because it follows the statement in verse 8. So Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. There seems to be some kind of contrast here that the false teaching is pulling out something different. Also, there are comparisons with Jesus in the verses that follow.

So the first clue, this teaching is somehow about Jesus' unchangeable nature, or calling that into question. And number two, it has to do with food, which doesn't seem like a big deal to me me and you, okay? If somebody's like, hey, I heard this really strange teaching about food, I mean, I would laugh. I'd be like, oh, okay. But this is likely something pointing to like adherence to an Old Testament feast, okay? There's something kind of Old Testimony about this, that this false teaching is developing a heritage that is devoted to something with with an ancient spiritual history.

So whenever it's talking about, we have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat, we are steeped in Old Testament imagery and Old Testament ideology, ideology, we're there. And so the clue that we have, essentially that it's devoted to something with a rich spiritual history, a modern day equivalent of this strange teaching would be maybe devotion to the way people used to celebrate the Lord's Supper.

It's not just that you think it's a good idea, it's that it has to be done that way, and we're devoted to that, and it kind of steers everything else we do. Or maybe it's certain songs that people used to sing. So we're devoted to those songs, because those songs are somehow far and way better than whatever is being written afterward. Or maybe to think about it in terms of like an ancient writing. So maybe a really old book like Augustine's Confessions, right? That's a great old book. It's good to read Augustine's Confessions. If you ever get a chance to read Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo, then you should. However, these things aren't bad things, right? Old ways of doing Lord's Supper, old songs, old writings, those are not bad things. They simply don't deserve devotion, right? They don't deserve to be elevated to that level. They're good, they're fine, they're awesome, but they're not on the level of the gospel.

They're not worth dividing over. They're not worth strict adherence. In other words, they don't make the list of essential things being handed down in our Christian heritage. They don't make the list. They can be good things, but not make that list. And so, we need a little bit more clarity on this false teaching, so let's read the next two verses. It says, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Okay, I realize that was pretty cryptic for many of us. There's two things that you need to see early. First, there's a contrast going on between this false teaching and Jesus. That's where the contrast is being set up. And if you're unfamiliar with Old Testament practices,

this is gonna be a little weird. Here's the main point. The main point in Old Testament sacrifices is that whenever you were gonna kill a bull, what you would do is that bull would be slaughtered right there, that blood would be fresh and that blood would be used for the sacrifices. Okay. But then you still had to do something with the body of the dead bull, but you couldn't just burn it right there. You couldn't just dispose of it right there. You brought it, according to the Old Testament, you brought that thing outside the camp and you burned it there. Typically, and it's significant because typically things outside the camp are things that are shameful. Things that are outside the camp are ceremonially unclean. Things that are outside the camp are things that are not holy, things that are not worthy of celebration, things that are really publicly scorned.

So for example, in the Old Testament, if you had leprosy, if you had a disease, then you were supposed to live outside the camp, right? You couldn't live inside the protection of the city wall. You had to live outside that. And you definitely couldn't go to temple, okay? So just understand there's this major underscore of shame, of public shame, and it's a euphemism for this shame, being outside the camp. So, so whatever it says in verse 12, so Jesus also suffered outside the gate or outside the camp in order to sanctify the people through his, his own blood. So there's this contrast where it says essentially Jesus is willing, more than willing, he jumps at the chance to suffer public shame. Okay. Jesus is willing to follow a plan where he is burned outside the camp. And the implication is that this false teaching is not. that whatever's going on with this fall's teaching,

that there is a certain kind of resistance to public shame. It's not willing to do that. And this becomes clearer as we keep reading. We're gonna read Hebrews 13, verses 13 through 15. It says, therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then, let us continually offer up sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. Okay, so let's take in this full contrast. Okay, starts in verse 11, goes all the way to verse 15. Let's take in this full contrast. We're going to start with false teaching, then we're going to move to Jesus. Okay, false teaching. What we can... we're hearing from the other side of the telephone. We're getting a few more context clues that this false teaching makes every effort to sidestep

public shame. Okay? And we know this because the contrast is with Jesus. Verse 13, what does Jesus do? He bears reproach, meaning like public scorn. He bears that. And this false teaching doesn't. Verse 14, it says that we're seeking, we're seeking no lasting city. We're seeking the city that is to come. The idea is that the false teaching is seeking kind of the approval of this city, right? It's seeking a place, a social standing within this city. In verse 15, it's pretty obvious there that the contrast is with acknowledging Jesus publicly, that there is a resistance as false teaching to acknowledge Jesus publicly. And we see this again by contrast 13, 14, 15. We see it by contrast because in this day and age in the first century, right, this false teaching is taking a hold in the public because it doesn't offend. That someone can align, somebody in the

church, in the Hebrews church, can align with this false teaching and when they do they will be socially applauded. They'll say, oh how brave. Look at you go. So strong, so brave, so heroic. Okay, so you have a, can I have a public acceptance of this false teaching. It's much easier to swallow. It doesn't, it denies Jesus publicly. It's, and we know from the previous two verses and verses, well, a couple of verses ago, verses 9 and 10, that this false teaching aligns itself with ancient spiritual kind of rich history. Okay, so let's connect the dots. What's going on? What is this false teaching? This false teaching, from what we can tell from these verses, tells people what tells the public what they want to hear in ancient spiritual overtones. This false teaching tells people what they want to hear, what they cloak it in these really old spiritual ritualistic kind of things like, oh, it's mysterious, it's so spiritual, it's

all connected to the Old Testament, it must be right. And that's what this false teaching is. And on that front, false teaching hasn't really changed that much. teaching today, I mean, it looks really similar to that. It's easy to find churches with a heritage of only discussing non-offensive things. It's easy, truly, in Burleson. It's easy to find churches that will only discuss non-offensive things because their heritage is misplaced. They have a heritage and being well regarded. They care about what the public at large thinks about them. Before they say what they're going to say, before this church makes a stand on something, they're going to consider, what are the optics on this? How's this going to look? Who are going to offend? They maintain that heritage. That makes sense to them because internally, They're taking issues that the gospel is very clear on.

Unfun issues that are offensive. The culture will call offensive, backward, oppressive, misogynistic. Listen, I just said like four cuss words in our culture, right? If anything, if anything is ever described publicly as misogynistic, it's not good. Okay. If you're, if you want to be a social pariah, If you want to be scorned publicly, go ahead and live with the attribute of being misogynistic or oppressive or backward. Recently, I came across a church that had, it's in Dallas, it had rainbow banners hanging, right? So, kind of in their fellowship hall, they have these huge windows that face outside, And there's every color of the rainbow and like six windows kind of all together. And the words on the banner essentially said, we proudly support our LGBTQ friends. That was what the banner said in a church in DFW. And on their website, they claim, and in conversation, they're going to claim, they say, look, we're

just non-judgmental. We love everybody. We are compassionate. Well, look, who in here doesn't want to be compassionate? Who in here doesn't want to do that? Right? Everybody's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we want to be compassionate. And moreover, it sounds very spiritual, doesn't it? Like Christians want to be the most compassionate, right? We should be the most compassionate because we've received an overwhelming amount of compassion from Jesus. We shouldn't be hateful. We should be compassionate. Do you see how easy it is to kind of twist it? It's so easy, right? It's so easy to say, well, look, you don't want to be offensive on purpose, do you? And it becomes a sticky wicket, as my dad would say, pretty quickly. And just so we're clear, I have in my own life, LGBTQ people that are extremely dear to me. One of those is my own father. I love that man. I love him deeply.

I care about him deeply. But what banners like those attempt to do when they attempt to tell the culture what they want to hear in spiritual overtones, what they attempt to do is to redefine the gospel. They want to redefine the gospel, and they want to say the gospel is only about love and acceptance. So let me be super clear. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about love and acceptance. Yeah. Okay. Yes, we all agree. But it's only part of the story. It's only part of the truth. And if you only pretend like that's the gospel and there's nothing else to it, you're being disingenuous. You are twisting the gospel up to make it more palatable for people to hear. Because the gospel also says that God saves sinners. And that everyone, gay, straight, trans, cis, it doesn't matter, everybody is condemned and they need a savior. Everybody. We're all condemned and we need a savior.

It is unpleasant to talk about that among people who don't know the Lord. In fact, what I would say, it sometimes is easy for us to read Hebrews 13 and just kind of put it all off on false teachers and find false teaching today and pick on that church in Dallas who has those rainbow banners. But this is something that we all do. Every single one of us does this. We do this with parts of the gospel that we find offensive. And that's different for everybody. Some of you, you know, whenever I'm talking about the LGBTQ banners, you know, you kind of feel like you're kind of torn on that. And some of you aren't. You're torn in lots of other places. Personally, it's just helpful to remember this. The gospel makes personal demands on us that we do not like.

The gospel does that. The gospel says effectively that you have been bought with a price and now you are not your own. You follow a different king. The way you spend your time, the way you spend your money, the way you treat other people, the way you pray for other people, all of that, All of that, the gospel bears on it. Jesus speaks to it. And our only appropriate response to something like that is, yes, sir. That's it. It's not easy. In fact, one way to tell if you are actually following Jesus or not is to ask yourself, does Jesus ever offend you? Does Jesus ever tell you to do things that you hate to do? Because let me tell you, look, if he doesn't, if Jesus never kind of turns over your apple cart and never messes up something that you really like have, that you've really set up well in your life, if Jesus never does that, I mean, I would question like if you're listening,

maybe you've got some selective hearing whenever Jesus is talking to you about some things. Because when you follow Jesus for a while, what happens is you begin to find things in your life that are displeasing to the Lord. You begin to find habits in your life. You begin to find ways that you either listen or don't listen to people or speak to people that don't glorify the Lord. And we are called, the gospel calls us all to repentance on those things. Following Jesus, to put it bluntly, is dying to yourself, even whenever you wanna seem nice. And the gospel doesn't just make demands privately, the gospel also makes demands publicly. In other words, religion is not just something that should be private and only discussed at the family table. That is hogwash. That's a lie from the pit of hell. And I know what people mean whenever they're going for it, but do not believe it.

Don't pass it on. Because if the gospel is true, go with me on this. If the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that everyone who has not raised their hand I said, I will follow you, Jesus, is going to hell? That's public news. That should have bearing on how we treat people. And just a window into my relationship with my dad, right? We talk probably three times a month. Sometimes more often than that. We talk often.

I don't make a point in every conversation to say, Dad, hey, do you know you're lost in going to hell? I'm just making sure. That would kind of kill the conversation, if you can imagine that. But I've said it enough times, in enough ways, compassionately, almost apologetically to him in particular, that he knows I love him. He knows how I feel about it. He knows the truth. And if he's going to ignore the truth, there's nothing I can do about it except love him and continue to encourage him in the truth. Look, that's not just what we do with homosexual dads. It's what we do with everybody, right? It's what we do with everybody. How do you deal with people that are running from the Lord? You love them compassionately, you listen to them, you ask them what's going on, you encourage them in the Lord. Yes, all of those things. It don't have to be some public scorned sin.

The gospel always offends our public sensibilities somewhere, whether it be gender roles, sexual purity, abortion, gay marriage, it's going to offend us. It's going to offend our culture. It's going to do that because it's not going to apologize for being unpopular. That's the false teaching. Here's Jesus. Let's go back to verses 11 and 12. It says, For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priests as the sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So, verse 12, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, outside the camp, in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. So whereas false teaching is going to tell the culture what they want to hear in spiritual overtones, Jesus is going to declare the truth that we almost never want to hear. He's going to do it with authentic spirituality and it's going to bring healing every time.

Jesus does these things in order to bring us to God. In order to bring us to God, Jesus had to endure public disgrace. He had to sacrifice his social prominence. Our heritage includes the same. We have to know that what we believe in Scripture is not culturally accepted. And I don't care if it used to be more or if it, like, I'm not worried about the trajectory. I'm not worried about the trajectory of the culture. Culture changes on a dime.

So I'm not worried about, oh, it's getting so much worse, or no, it's actually getting better. I'm not having that discussion. I'm saying that no matter what in the culture, you're always gonna have to endure public disgrace. You're always going to have to risk seeming dumb or backward or like a bumpkin for believing what you believe. You're going to have to suffer people's pity at you. Isn't that cute? You still believe all of that junk from Sunday school when you were eight.

Yeah. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. It is that simple. It is that true, but that truth, that simplicity is offensive. Part of the reason that the church is receiving this letter is not so that they could... I'll just say, I'll be pro here, not negative. It's because they must be unified in their sacrifice, in their public sacrifice of standing for the gospel. In other words, when you stand for the gospel, you should not stand alone. Our church should understand this as a part of our role, a unified sacrifice, standing up and being counted and being associated with. Okay, I'm not talking about presidential candidates. I'm not talking about politicians at all, really. I'm talking about people that are willing to stand up, say something difficult, and for you whenever you're in the office, whenever you're, you know, wherever you're happening

and somebody says, oh, this guy, this lady, can you believe what they're saying? Isn't that crazy? Yeah, yeah, I can. I can believe it. You want to have a discussion over it? And I want to say this. This is actually just as important as actually standing up and saying something. It has to be humble. It has to come from a place of compassion. If you hate the culture, you're just going to be the trolick. You're going to be the one who's offensive, not the gospel.

Every part of Scripture should prevent us from grandstanding or trying to show people that they're idiots. Oh, I can't believe you vote a certain way. What are you a moron? Okay, or I can't believe you support abortion rights. Don't you know it's murder? Well, let me just help you understand. Yeah, they probably have figured that out and there's probably a reason that they vote that way. Why don't you find out? Why don't you have that conversation with them? Out of compassion, out of understanding where they are. Maybe it's not a matter of information. But if you cannot, cannot muster the compassion to put yourself in somebody else's shoes and to ask questions long enough to understand where they're coming from, then you are not ready to say the hard thing. You're not, you're not ready. If you're like, you know, I've been hearing my co-worker talk about how trans rights and you got real strong opinions

about that and you're thinking, okay, how can I start talking about this in a way that shouts that guy down? The answer is no, not how, not no. You form a relationship with that person. The person typically who's being loud about opinions, they're usually the ones that are the most insecure. And if you can engage them in a normal conversation, a lot of times that's love like they've never felt. Let's keep reading. Verses 15 and 16. We've already read 15, we'll read it again. It says, through him, through Jesus, then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

This is basically what I was just referring to. It's the idea that through Jesus, through Him, we can face this disgrace. We can speak His name and declare what is true, even when it is publicly shamed. And we can do it in a way that is humble, compassionate, and actually cares about people's eternal destinations. And we can also do it, we can also do it while doing good. Verse 16, do not neglect to do good and do share what you have for such sacrifices or pleasing to God. This is a summary of verses 1 through 6 that we looked at last week, when it says let brotherly love continue, where we give generously, not just to the people in our church community, but beyond that. We extend brotherly love past our own borders. And we guard one another fiercely. What would it be like, what would it be like for you to treat whoever you're mad at, whoever's yelling, whoever you're mad at online,

what if you had to treat them better than you treat your own church family? And there's no what if about it. That's what it says in here. Do good, love, give, be generous, be compassionate, put yourself in their shoes, and God willing you're going to have an opportunity to speak truth to them, not dunk on them. Let's begin connecting all the dots because there is a very odd verse at the very end of this. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to them. So now we're not talking about past leaders, we are talking about current leaders. Let's keep going, sorry. leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not groaning, for that would be no advantage to you." What does obeying your current leaders, your spiritual leaders, have to do with withstanding public shame by declaring what's true? What do those things have to do with one another?

I think that we can kind of see it in whenever it says that leaders have to keep watch over your souls That's a pretty broad thing for leaders to have to do If somebody told you hey, I want you to keep watch over this other person's soul for like 10 minutes. I'll be back Okay, okay, what how do we how do you know I've watched over this old welcome to my job that's

What does that mean Well, it means keeping people from dangerous false teaching. That's what keeping watch over your souls means. It means keeping you from falling into spiritual negligence. When you are under some kind of spiritual oppression, when you are spiritually sick and you don't see it, it is upon me. It is my job, literally, to say something to you, to say,

dear, I believe you are sick. Sir, I believe you are sick. And here's why. Leaders are keeping watch over people's souls so that they can warn you against neglecting the community. They're keeping watch over your soul because they are guarding you from wimping out and speaking Jesus' name publicly. We can also see it whenever it talks about how leaders are shepherding as those who will give an account. The stakes are the highest possible. This is not practice. This isn't play time. We're not playing church today. We're dealing with eternal significance. We're dealing with life and death. And if leaders are in it for personal gain, they don't make it, they crash and burn, and it's pretty harsh. But it's a lot of pressure. It's good pressure, I don't need pity over the pressure. I said yes to this thing, okay? However, when you have those leaders, what it says is those leaders are helping you

do what we've looked at in the whole book of Hebrews, not just from verse seven on. It's saying consider your heritage, Consider how these people, these spiritual leaders in your life, they walked you through that stuff. Consider their way of life. Consider their message, how they spoke the word of God to you. And what it says in verse 17, consider your leaders presently. Consider how they are laboring over you. Consider how they are speaking the word of God to you and submit to them. And that word in the Greek, if you look, that word submit, it means submit. No other way to say it, man. It means submit. Now, if you think I got like some hobby horse, like I'm super excited for everybody to submit to me, okay, clearly you've never been a pastor. It is difficult, high stakes work. It's work that I've said yes to.

So no pity, please. But when it talks about in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17, Obey me and submit to me. There's no cartwheels being done internally for me. That's an incredible amount of pressure. I better have the right answer, right? Like, I better be on my game because I'm watching over your souls. And so what does it tell you to do? It tells you to let me do that with joy. I want to watch over your souls. I love you, truly. I know all of you by name, and I love you. I know what's going on in your lives mostly, the highlights at the very least, and I pray for you. Let me do that with joy and not with groaning. And then I love the appeal, for that would be no advantage to you. It doesn't help you, right? It's actually a kind of a selfish appeal. It doesn't help you when you make my job to watch over your souls more difficult. It's also something that we should consider as we are considering our pastoral

candidates, right? In these next six to nine months, we've got two pastoral candidates, Dan Hay, Daniel Oster. And as we read verse 17, can I obey these men and listen to them? Can I submit to them? I mean, that'll make you look at somebody pretty closely, won't it? But that's good. That's the way it should be. The reason that we do all this is because the Lord works through spiritual leaders to grow and encourage and develop the congregation. And what he's saying in verse 17 is submit to that process. Be in the body. Consider not just the heritage that you came from, but for some of you, consider the heritage that you're creating. Are you creating a heritage of following leadership? Are you creating a heritage where you are adding to their joy, not their grief? I want you to consider also, and we'll end with this, I want you to consider those under your care.

People that you are spiritually leading. You don't have to be a pastor to be a spiritual leader. Who are the people that you're spiritually leading? What are your dreams for them? For some of you, it's your children. That's great. That's awesome. I'm not saying you need more, okay? You probably got your hands full of what you got. What are your dreams for them? Beyond being a law abiding contributing member of society. Beyond that. Church generally, what are your dreams for those that are coming up in the next generation? For those that are young? What kind of ministry is the Lord calling you to do with that younger generation? It's not just for student ministers, it's not just for grade school ministers, it's all of us. It's a whole church effort. Parents of younger kids, how are you discipling your kids even now? Parents of older kids, how are you helping them navigate the public scorn of following

Jesus? Because it's there. Recent retirees or not so recent retirees, how are you investing in the next generation of leaders? And in all these cases, parents, retirees, church members, in all these cases, if not you then who? If not you then who? will disciple. If not you, then who? As we enter into our time of invitation, I want you to consider all those questions I asked, but also just as we do, as we sing, I pray that we'd sing and pray, that we would pray for the next generation. If there's a decision that you need to make, if you are considering baptism, if you're considering joining our church. That's terrific. I will be up here and you can just come on up and tell me kind of what you wanna do, what that next step is. Maybe you just need prayer, it's fine. Maybe you wanna join church. Maybe you wanna be baptized. Maybe you haven't been baptized and you're interested in doing that.

That's how we start that discussion here. Okay. So as we pray and sing, I just wanna encourage you toward just considering what the Lord is calling you to do and to be obedient to that in that moment. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for this opportunity to come together as a body. I pray that you would help us to, I just pray that you help us to know to be sure what you're calling us to do and to give us the courage to do it. That's your name that we pray. Amen. Would you please stand? Rolling on my knees in worship Giving all I am to seek Your faith Lord, all I am is Yours By whole life I place in Your hands Out of mercy humble I bow down A new present that you'll throw I call, you answer You came to my rescue and I'll be where you are I say that again I call, you answer To my rescue and I'll be where you are Fall on my knees and on my knees and words I'm giving all I am to see Your face and His name is Yours

My whole life I place in Your hands God of mercy humbled I bow down Your presence at Your throne As I call You answer You came to my rescue and I know You are I call You answer to my rescue and I want to be my life Isaiah 40, the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to Him who has no might, He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.